A scene from a Triqui ceremony. Photo by Yuwali via Wikipedia
Members of the Triqui Tribe in southern Mexico fled drug-related violence in their homeland only to find conditions are just as bad elsewhere in the country. About 15,000 tribal members live in a settlement known as New Copala in Baja California. It's the largest Triqui community in the world -- only about 5,000 still live in their traditional territory further south in the state of Oaxaca. "We had no choice," resident Juan Martinez told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It was either risk death by staying in Oaxaca or seek a new life with your own people elsewhere." New Copala, though, is controlled by drug cartels that operate in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Triqui youth are pressured to join gangs and some are even starting their own in response to the violence, Reuters reported. Tribal leaders are trying to keep their language and traditions alive in New Copala. But law enforcement is virtually non-existent in the region so many worry their youth will grow up feeling hopeless. Still, many refuse to return to Oaxaca until the situation there improves. In addition to the drug cartels, rival Triqui groups have taken up arms in an attempt to limit who can enter and exit their homelands. "Our men have been beaten and murdered, our women raped and our houses burned to the ground," Braulio Hernandez, a Triqui leader who is confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the back by drug traffickers, told The Daily Mail. "We had to flee or face death." Get the Story:
Violence, drugs dash Mexico Triqui people's dream of new start far from home (Reuters 12/1)
Bullets, blood and narcos: San Juan Copala, the ghost town where Mexico's Triqui tribe headed for the hills in brutal drugs war (The Daily Mail 10/30)
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