News - More than 500 people flee to Guatemala because of increasing violence in southern Mexico

More than 500 people have been forced to cross the Guatemalan border in one week to escape the violence in southern Mexico, the Guatemalan Migration Institute (IGM) said in a statement. IGM added that it set up a task force to provide humanitarian aid to these migrants. The crime situation in Mexico’s Chiapas State—bordering Guatemala—has sharply worsened recently, El Universal reports. There has been an upsurge in violence between two of Mexico's largest criminal gangs: the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Jalisco Cartel New Generation. They are fighting each other for the control of Mexico's border areas that are used for drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and the organizing of Central American illegal migrants who then head north—through Mexico—in hopes of entering the United States.