(25 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ampliación Nueva Reforma, Huehuetenango, Guatemala – 25 July 2024
1. Various of local people donating food and drinks to refugees
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) No name given:
"In my house, my sad little house, the bullets passed through, leaving holes. We just flattened ourselves, as we say there, to the ground. I don’t know what is going on with these groups that are killing each other, kidnapping young people, kidnapping women and young girls. Why are we peasants to blame?"
3. Guatemalan soldiers with refugees
4. Various of view towards the Mexican border
5. Guatemalan soldiers
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Roberto Hernandez, 70, refugee:
"Now because of these people, I don’t know why, but they are scaring the peasantry. But we don’t have to suffer because of them. That’s why we are here, I don’t know how it’s going to be, they say there’s going to be more shooting there and we could be hit."
7. Soldiers and refugees walking into room with mattresses
8. Various of refugees
9. Various of Guatemalan soldier
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) No name given:
"These people do not have God in their minds. So many years lived to lose them in seconds. But the important thing is that I thank my God that we are alive. And what else? For the shelter here in Guatemala."
11. Various of an 80 year old refugee
12. Various of Guatemalan official
13. School converted in refugee shelter
14. Refugees
15. Various aerial shots of the Guatemala – Mexico border ++MUTE++
STORYLINE:
When hundreds of Mexican villagers heard the bullets from the most recent cartel shootout landing close to their homes, they knew it was time to go.
A mixture of adults, children and the elderly fled on foot across the border to Guatemala.
They left behind their animals, documents, money and took off running.
Nearly 600 people fled various communities of Amatenango la Frontera, on Mexico’s southern border, escaping warring drug cartels that have terrorized people in southern Mexico.
“I left my home because of the shooting, and out of fear,” said the farmer, who requested anonymity for his family’s safety. “The cartels kill even the innocent.”
They walked more than 2 miles (4 kilometers) over the mountains and through thick brush until they found a path that brought them to Ampliacion Nueva Reforma, an impoverished Guatemalan hamlet in the Cuilco municipality.
More than 200 Mexican refugees have arrived at this single community in recent days. Locals have scrambled to shelter them in their modest school and collect donations of food and water.
“Thank God they gave us a hand, gave us a tea to calm our fear,” the man said. “We’re afraid to return. There’s no authority to fight them. What we ask of the government is to intervene and help us out and send the Mexican army.”
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo said Wednesday his administration would coordinate the humanitarian response though there was little sign of it yet.
Still, that was more than came from the Mexican side where authorities did not respond to requests for comment about the situation and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not even mention it during his daily briefing Thursday of more than three hours.
A 42-year-old woman who identified herself only as Karla to protect her family, said she fled Sunday with her four children.
“With the shootouts you couldn’t leave your home to look for food, imagine what I could give my children to eat," she said. “We don’t know how much longer this is going to last. We don’t know if we’ll be able to return.”
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/cc96a3dbd4e84e6e93af5817327117f3
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in July 31, 2024, 12:04 am.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
