The central and western regions of the country are the most affected, according to Inegi.
The fierce fight between the drug cartels for control of routes and the growing “business” of extortion and human trafficking has caused the phenomenon of forced internal displacement to worsen in recent months, especially in the center and west of the country.
In 2022, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), 699,120 Mexicans changed their residence, either abruptly or planned, to protect themselves from crime in different regions.
In the western zone, made up of Aguascalientes, Colima, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Querétaro, and Zacatecas, was where most Mexicans decided to flee crime, with 190,793 cases.
Next is the central zone, which covers Edomex, CDMX, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala, where 177,982 people left their communities.
In the northeast region, made up of Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas, 121,448 compatriots left their residences to protect themselves from crime.
In the southeast area, made up of Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, and Yucatán, 133,284 Mexicans were forced to move, while in the northwest, which make up Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Sonora, 75,613 inhabitants did so.
For Francisco Rivas, director of the National Citizen Observatory, the growing displacement in different parts of the country is due to the excessive power that criminal groups have acquired, which not only control the transportation routes but also have a hand in controlling the markets and community life.
He asserts that, currently, cases of unplanned forced displacement are known through the media, which are those that occur abruptly, but there are a large number of Mexicans who decide to change their residence and do so calmly. , putting all his affairs in order and then leaving for other less violent regions.
Meanwhile, Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado, who was a representative of the UN-DH Mexico, stated that, in certain regions of the country, organized crime controls territories and populations, through threats, intimidation and violence: “Rarely do the authorities carry out investigations, even into the most serious crimes, such as homicides and disappearances,” which also affects internal migration.
According to the Internal Displacement Observatory (IDMC), in Mexico violence mainly continues to force inhabitants, especially in rural and very violent areas, to leave everything: their property and their friends.
According to the IDMC, in Mexico “almost all registered displacements were caused by criminal violence.”
