Landmines have proliferated at an unusual rate in Michoacán; in recent years, authorities have seized nearly 5,000 of these explosive devices, an average of 136 per month.
In Michoacán’s Tierra Caliente region, these improvised explosives have devastated the lives of many people. At N+, we tell you what it’s like to live among mines and what these devices have caused in recent years.
Key Facts
Steps on landmines have claimed the lives of 22 people in Michoacán from 2022 to the present.
The first recorded case was that of two farmers, a father and son, who stepped on a mine in 2022; only the son survived.
One of the explosions with the highest number of fatalities occurred on May 27 of this year: six National Guard members died after stepping on a mine.
Michoacán is the state with the highest number of landmines in the country.
A total of 4,931 explosive devices have been deactivated in the last three years across the state, more than half of them in the Tierra Caliente region.
Aguililla, Coalcomán, Tepalcatepec, and Apatzingán are the municipalities where this phenomenon occurs most frequently.
Related news: Michoacán, Between Mines and Explosives: Devices Modified to Be Launched from Drones Deactivated
Carlos stepped on a mine in a lemon orchard
Carlos will spend almost a year unable to work; he stepped on a mine inside the lemon orchard where he worked, in rural Michoacán.
He received two plates in his arm and ankle to save his limbs.
I was like a complete idiot, I didn’t know what to do. I was like, about a minute, and then I said, “Well, I stepped on a mine.” I started to think about it… Yes, I was scared because I had shed so much blood in the accident. My body was covered in blood, my clothes, too. I think that’s what made me dizzy when I got out and tried to walk because I was dripping with blood. I was fainting because of it.
Leaning on a crutch to walk, Carlos recounted that in the area where he worked, they hadn’t heard about the presence of landmines.
IEDs, as the authorities call them, are regularly planted in mountainous areas and are part of the dispute between organized crime groups trying to prevent access to their territories.
Carlos has a wife and two children to support, so he can’t wait to get back to work.
“How could I not want to recover from that scare we had and get out alive… I’m not going back to where the accident happened, I’m going to keep working, but on a different path. Where things are calmer, I’m not going to stop, I’m going to keep fighting,” he said.
But in the state, not even cattle have been spared from landmines. Their presence has disrupted lives, become a threat to free movement, and has left ghost towns.
“A mine hit this cow, she’s intact, only one leg, one little hand was blown off. Who’s going to buy her?” another witness said.
Here we’re entering Apache territory, it’s really bad over here, it’s alone. And unfortunately, we have to unload the implements, this tractor, so we don’t leave them there.
“The Apatzingán harvesters don’t want to come harvest the lemon trees knowing that a young man was already killed by a mine,” said Joaquín, a local farmer.
Source: nmas
