Villagers Describe 22 Days in Cartel Captivity in Guerrero

The attackers seized residents as they worked in fields or tended livestock in the mountain community of about 750 people. Six of the eight abducted villagers later described being held for 22 days. They said they heard a gunman refer to 136 captives, who were called “squirrels” because they had to eat with their hands cuffed near their mouths.

The captives said they were blindfolded, interrogated and accused of belonging to a rival cartel. They described threats, beatings, severe heat, hunger and thirst. Some said they were moved in crowded trucks when armed men heard radio warnings about military movements. The gunmen told them the cartel wanted to take control of the community’s territory and timber, and said the government would not help.

Residents said the cartel had threatened the community for years. El Balcón had rejected both working with the cartel and leaving, and had chosen decades earlier not to grow poppies. The attackers identified themselves as members of La Familia. A local priest who heads a human rights center said the group sought to expand toward the coast.

The community’s security network alerted residents to the abductions, and people used a drone to watch the attackers take the final captives. Some military personnel were deployed to protect the village as residents pressed authorities to search. About a week after the kidnappings, the captors released a 13-year-old boy, who walked back barefoot. Information from him and other community members helped residents prepare a search map for authorities.

Most of the surviving villagers were held for 22 days, while one of the eight remains missing. The accounts also included other captives: one man said he had been held for two and a half years, and a woman said she was being punished because her son had left the cartel.