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🇲🇽 Mexico /Culture & Society

Violence Keeps Children in Guerrero’s Sierra From Starting School

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Children in El Pescado, Guerrero, could not start the school year because violence has prevented teachers from reaching the community since October.
  • Residents appealed to Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda and said the current obstacle is a lack of teaching staff, not school facilities.
  • The community has also reported attacks by La Familia Michoacana, while the Mexican Army and National Guard maintain control of the area.

Children in El Pescado, in the Sierra of Coyuca de Catalán in Guerrero’s Tierra Caliente, could not begin the school year because violence has kept teachers away. In a video shared on social media, the children appealed to Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda to protect their right to education and send teachers to the community.

Residents said in a statement that the children have been without classes since October last year. They are now approaching a full year without schooling. The community said the interruption was painful but necessary, because violence made it impossible for teachers to travel safely to the area.

Residents also said that the Mexican Army and National Guard currently control the zone and are providing the security needed for a return to classrooms. But they identified a different immediate problem: the schools lack enough teachers. “The schools in our communities lack the necessary teaching staff, which prevents this new school year from developing normally and perpetuates the educational disadvantage our children have already carried since last year,” they said.

The schools in our communities lack the necessary teaching staff, which prevents this new school year from developing normally and perpetuates the educational disadvantage our children have already carried since last year.

· Residents of El PescadoThey explained why children remain unable to return to school even though security forces control the area.

In July, residents accused the criminal organization La Familia Michoacana of attacking El Pescado with gunfire from surrounding hills and with drones. Videos showed women, older people and children sheltering in a health clinic while asking the federal and state governments to stop the armed attacks. One woman, speaking as gunfire could be heard in the background, said: “Help, help, they are shooting at us; so they cannot say there is no proof.”

The report also mentions a recent attack by an armed group on a family in the mountain community of Cerro de la Lumbreras, in San Miguel Totolapan, where two teenagers died and an adult was wounded.

Help, help, they are shooting at us; so they cannot say there is no proof.

· An unidentified woman in a video from a health clinicShe appealed for help while residents sheltered during an alleged attack by La Familia Michoacana.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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