Belize

Mexico

Guatemala Guatemala
Guatemala Honduras

Drug cartel and gang violence Salvador

Quick facts has reportedly continued to cause
Number of IDPs Undetermined displacement, but systematic figures
Percentage of total population Undetermined have not been gathered. It is thought that people have been
Start of current displacement situation 1980 forced to flee from one poor urban neighbourhood to another.
In Ciudad Quetzal, an impoverished neighbourhood of
Peak number of IDPs (Year) 1,500,000 (1983)
Guatemala City, it was reported that owners had abandoned
New displacement Undetermined
their homes in 2010 to escape violence and threats from gangs.
Causes of displacement Armed conflict, generalised Community leaders in Villa Nueva near Guatemala City have
violence, human rights
violations estimated that five per cent of families there have had to re-
Human development index 116
settle after they failed to pay the illegal taxes imposed by
those groups.
A growing number of Guatemalans have requested asylum
The long conflict between government forces and insurgents in other countries in recent years, particularly in the United
grouped under the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity States, and according to UNHCR’s latest available figures, some
ended in 1996 and left between 500,000 and 1.5 million 9,000 asylum applications were pending globally in 2009.
people internally displaced across Guatemala, many of them Guatemala has been unable to build strong institutions and
in the shanty towns of the capital, Guatemala City. 14 years provide security for its citizens, and IDPs have not received any
after the end of the conflict, little was known about the number specific support. The country faces a growing threat from or-
and situation of remaining IDPs, but the country’s widespread ganised crime and corruption, and in 2010, the UN’s Interna-
poverty and the additional difficulties associated with forced tional Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, established
displacement suggested that many people had been unable to in 2007 to help the country fight crime and corruption, had
rebuild their lives and livelihoods. its mandate renewed by the UN General Assembly until 2013.

Mexico
the border into the United States, with an estimated 115,000
Quick facts people left internally displaced, predominantly in the states
Number of IDPs About 120,000 of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz. There have
Percentage of total population About 0.2% been few attempts to define the scale of displacement in small
Start of current displacement situation 1994 rural towns in Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, even though the vio-
lence is believed to be even more intense in those rural areas.
Peak number of IDPs (Year) 120,000 (2010)
Furthermore, forced displacement has taken place alongside
New displacement About 115,000
strong economic migration flows, making it harder to identify
Causes of displacement Generalised violence, and document.
human rights violations
In Tamaulipas, the Cartel del Golfo and another cartel
Human development index 56
known as the Zetas fought for
trafficking routes, terrorising the
civilian population as a way to
Drug-cartel violence in Mexico escalated dramatically in 2010, assert territorial control, and also Ciudad
United States of America
Juárez
with the violence reaching the highest levels since it broke targeting local authorities and
out in 2006; as many as 15,000 people were killed as a result journalists. The municipalities !"#"+$"+$

during the year. In 2010, northern states bordering the United most affected were Guerrero,
States, where trafficking routes were concentrated, were most Mier, Miguel Alemán, Camargo
/$0
/$0$+1#%$&
affected. While the violence has caused forced displacement, and Díaz Ordaz.
the government has not systematically collected figures to In Ciudad Mier, a small locality
indicate its scale. near the border with the United Mexico
City
In 2010, most IDPs originated from the states most affected States, the Zetas issued an open
*+,--,-.
by violence, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas. Surveys conducted threat to all the inhabitants in '$($)$ !"#$%$&
by a research centre in Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua estimated November 2010, saying that
that around 230,000 people had fled their homes. Accor- people who remained in the
Guatemala
ding to the survey’s findings, roughly half of them had crossed town would be killed. As a result,

Internal displacement in the Americas 73

 as many as 400 people fled to the nearby town of Ciudad
Miguel Alemán.
In Chihuahua, where the Cartel de Sinaloa began to chal-
lenge the dominance of the Cartel de Juárez and its control of
trafficking routes, the large industrial town of Ciudad Juárez
also experienced increased violence and forced displacement.
The Municipal Planning Institute reported in 2010 that there
were up to 116,000 empty homes in Juárez.
In 2010, federal authorities did not acknowledge, assess or
document the needs of the people displaced, instead focusing
their efforts on fighting the drug cartels. International agencies
present in the country with protection mandates, including
UNHCR and ICRC, followed events but, in the absence of go-
vernment acquiescence, they did not establish programmes to
provide protection and assistance or promote durable solutions
for those forcibly displaced.
During the 1990s, up to 60,000 people were displaced
in the southern state of Chiapas, during an uprising by the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the group’s
subsequent confrontations with government forces. Those
displaced were mostly indigenous people who fled violence
at the hands of the army and allied militias, or members of
indigenous groups that did not align with the EZLN and so
were forced to leave by the Zapatistas.
OHCHR reported that between 3,000 and as many as
60,000 people were still internally displaced in 2003; and
between 5,000 and 8,000 people were reportedly still dis-
placed in 2007 according to local NGOs. In 2010, UNDP
Ten years after conflict ended between government forces
and the Shining Path and Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Move-
ment, most of the one million people internally displaced had
returned to their homes or resettled by 2010. The government
estimated in 2007 that 150,000 IDPs remained, mostly in urban
centres including Ayacucho, Lima, Junín, Ica and Huánuco.
A law on internal displacement passed in 2004 helped to
protect IDPs’ rights, as it incorporated the Guiding Principles on
Internal Displacement and created a division within the Ministry
of Women and Social Development (MIMDES) to coordinate
the response to internal displacement. This body has improved
the situation of some IDPs by starting
Colombia to register them for eventual repara-
Ecuador
tions, and implementing some liveli-
hoods support programmes.
However, early momentum faded
and, during 2010 as in 2009, the num-
Brazil ber of people registered remained at
only 5,000. There was another general
Huánuco
registry of conflict victims, but the
!"#$# IDP registry remained separate.
Lima
Ayacucho
No IDPs had received reparation
Ica by the end of 2010, and the focus
Bolivia on reparations for collective groups
was effectively stopping individual
applications. Collective reparations,
74 Global Overview 2010
estimated that 6,000 families remained in displacement in
Chiapas as a result of the Zapatista uprising.
More recently, sectarian violence between indigenous
communities in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca states, based
often on religious affiliation, have also caused violence and
displacement. The Commission for the Development of In-
digenous Peoples (CDI), a body created by the government,
reported that over 1,000 indigenous members of the protestant
minority were displaced from nine districts in 2009. In addition
indigenous people, particularly in Chiapas, were reportedly
displaced by paramilitary groups aligned with landowners, but
there is no information as to their numbers.
In contrast to previous years when the plight of people
displaced after the Zapatista uprising was largely forgotten,
initiatives to address the situation of IDPs in these states
gathered momentum in 2010. The Green Party brought a pro-
posal to the Senate to amend the law to give the CDI more
power and capacity to implement programmes to support the
displaced indigenous population. There had been no state or
federal legislation on internal displacement since a bill proposing
a general law on internal displacement was defeated in the
Senate in 1998.
In April 2010, UNDP launched a programme to support
peacebuilding among displaced populations in Chiapas, which
also aimed to persuade the state government and the federal
government to acknowledge displacement and provide tar-
geted support to IDPs, including through mechanisms to help
them recover the land and homes that they had lost.
Peru
Quick facts
Number of IDPs About 150,000
Percentage of total population About 0.5%
Start of current displacement situation 1980
Peak number of IDPs (Year) 1,000,000 (1990)
New displacement 0 
Causes of displacement Armed conflict, human
rights violations
Human development index 63
both for IDPs and victims of other human rights abuses, were
presented as development or anti-poverty measures rather than
the realisation of fundamental rights.
There was no data in 2010 evaluating the situation of IDPs or
comparing it to that of the non-displaced population. However,
IDPs continued to struggle to access livelihood opportunities,
education and health care.
In 2010, growth of coca plantations and associated violence
posed an ongoing threat, but there were no reports of resulting
displacement. Peru now closely follows Colombia as the largest
coca exporter, and factions of the Shining Path have reportedly
competed to control the trade. These groups conducted isolated
acts of violence in 2010 and planted landmines, prompting
fears among peasants of a return to conflict.