GUATEMALA CITY: Dozens of Mexican families have fled across the border into Guatemala because of drug cartel violence, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said Wednesday.

The Central American nation’s defense ministry said that the army was tightening security along the countries’ shared border.

Guatemalan authorities were providing assistance “to people who are escaping this confrontation between (criminal) groups that is taking place on the Mexican side,” Arevalo said at a press conference.

The office of the country’s human rights ombudsman told AFP that around 280-300 displaced Mexicans were at a temporary shelter near the border.

Mexico’s southernmost state of Chiapas draws tourists with its lush jungle, Indigenous communities and ancient Mayan ruins, but it has also seen intensifying turf wars between gangs fighting for control of drug and people-smuggling routes.

In late June, a clash between drug cartels in Chiapas left 19 people dead, including several Guatemalans.

Earlier that month, violence displaced several thousand people in the southern state.

Spiraling criminal violence has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against drug gangs in 2006.