MEXICO CITY - About 230,000 people have been displaced in Mexico because of drug violence, and about half of them may have taken refuge in the United States, according to a new study.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre based this week's report on studies by local researchers, saying that the Mexican government does not compile figures on people who have had to leave their homes because of turf battles between drug gangs.
"Independent surveys put their number at around 230,000," according to the global report's section on Mexico. "An estimated half of those displaced crossed the border into the United States, which would leave about 115,000 people internally displaced, most likely in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz."
While that number is far below the estimated 3.6 to 5.2 million displaced by decades of drug and guerrilla-war violence in Colombia, the report suggested that people who had to flee drug violence in Mexico have received little support.
"In Mexico, state and federal authorities did not acknowledge or start to respond to the internal displacement caused by drug cartels," the Geneva-based organization said.
Mexico's Interior Department said it had no immediate comment on the report.
However, government census figures released this month support the idea of an exodus, at least in some areas.
The census, carried out in mid-2010, listed as uninhabited 61 percent of the 3,616 homes in Praxedis G. Guerrero, a border township in the Rio Grande Valley east of Ciudad Juarez. The area has suffered turf battles between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels, and people in the town said gunmen have told them to leave.
A striking 111,103 of the 488,785 homes in violence-wracked Ciudad Juarez were abandoned, or about 23 percent, and almost one-third of the 160,171 houses in Reynosa were unoccupied.
The figure for Mexico as a whole was 14 percent, and many of those, especially in southern states, may belong to migrants who went to the United States seeking work.
Part of the exodus, the displacement center report noted, was because of the indiscriminate nature of the drug violence, which has killed more than 35,000 people since President Felipe Calderón boosted an offensive against cartels in late 2006.
By the numbers
230,000
People displaced by drug violence in Mexico
115,000
Number of Mexicans displaced by drug violence who may have gone to the United States
61
Percentage of empty homes in drug-corridor town of Praxedis G. Guerrero
14
Percentage of empty homes throughout Mexico
Sources: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and Mexican census
Study: Violence has rousted 230K people in Mexico
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre based this week's report on studies by local researchers, saying that the Mexican government does not compile figures on people who have had to leave their homes because of turf battles between drug gangs.
"Independent surveys put their number at around 230,000," according to the global report's section on Mexico. "An estimated half of those displaced crossed the border into the United States, which would leave about 115,000 people internally displaced, most likely in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz."
While that number is far below the estimated 3.6 to 5.2 million displaced by decades of drug and guerrilla-war violence in Colombia, the report suggested that people who had to flee drug violence in Mexico have received little support.
"In Mexico, state and federal authorities did not acknowledge or start to respond to the internal displacement caused by drug cartels," the Geneva-based organization said.
Mexico's Interior Department said it had no immediate comment on the report.
However, government census figures released this month support the idea of an exodus, at least in some areas.
The census, carried out in mid-2010, listed as uninhabited 61 percent of the 3,616 homes in Praxedis G. Guerrero, a border township in the Rio Grande Valley east of Ciudad Juarez. The area has suffered turf battles between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels, and people in the town said gunmen have told them to leave.
A striking 111,103 of the 488,785 homes in violence-wracked Ciudad Juarez were abandoned, or about 23 percent, and almost one-third of the 160,171 houses in Reynosa were unoccupied.
The figure for Mexico as a whole was 14 percent, and many of those, especially in southern states, may belong to migrants who went to the United States seeking work.
Part of the exodus, the displacement center report noted, was because of the indiscriminate nature of the drug violence, which has killed more than 35,000 people since President Felipe Calderón boosted an offensive against cartels in late 2006.
By the numbers
230,000
People displaced by drug violence in Mexico
115,000
Number of Mexicans displaced by drug violence who may have gone to the United States
61
Percentage of empty homes in drug-corridor town of Praxedis G. Guerrero
14
Percentage of empty homes throughout Mexico
Sources: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and Mexican census
Study: Violence has rousted 230K people in Mexico
