The fear for the clashes between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel The repeated attacks this week have brought life to a standstill in Culiacán, the capital of the northwestern state of one million people, forcing the state government on Thursday to suspend classes and this weekend’s Mexican independence celebrations.
Governor Rubén Rocha and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador —both from the same party— have downplayed the situation and say local, state and federal forces have the situation under control.
But despite the arrival of hundreds of special forces and armed planes and helicopters to the state on Wednesday, many businesses remain closed, some transportation remains paralyzed and schools are without students. The governor admitted that clashes between armed groups, which arose after the arrest in July of two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel in the United States, could continue.
In a video posted on his social media on Thursday, Rocha said security forces at all three levels of government are “deterring some violent actions but above all minimizing the risks to the population.”
However, he acknowledged that for security reasons “there will be no celebration” for Independence Day, which begins on the evening of September 15. He also said that classes were suspended “due to the low attendance we have in schools” and that the authorities would supplement the lack of urban transport with government vehicles.
In 2008, an unusual mass grenade attack against civilians took place in a city west of the Mexican capital just as the population was celebrating its main Independence Day celebrations. Eight people were killed and hundreds were injured.
President López Obrador also sent a message of reassurance on Thursday. “We have enough presence to guarantee peace and tranquility” in Sinaloa, he said during his morning press conference.
In Culiacán things look very different.
“The government controls nothing, absolutely nothing,” said Ismael Bojórquez, director of the Riodoce weekly in that city, a publication specializing in coverage of organized crime. “There is a lot of fear, people are defenseless,” he told reporters by phone. The Associated Press.
He gave the example of how an armed group with 15 trucks, some of them armed, entered the capital on Tuesday in broad daylight and no one stopped them. “The government then comes to collect rubbish and to remove the vehicles that were burned.”
Juan Carlos Ayala, a philosophy professor at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, explained that between Wednesday and Thursday alone he has been involved in three nearby shootings, “so here we are, protected.”
“The city looks empty, there are clashes everywhere,” Ayala added.
Since Monday, people have reduced their movements, public universities have suspended classes and families have stopped taking their children to school even though official notice had not been received.
A 65-year-old retiree who lives in a rural community on the outskirts of Culiacán and asked to be identified only as Jesús for fear of reprisals, explains that he spoke to his children to leave his grandchildren at home, “so that they don’t believe that things are calm” even though the government says so.
As of Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office had reported 9 dead, 8 wounded, 14 kidnapped and 16 vehicles stolen in acts of violence that occurred in Culiacán and other parts of the state related to this situation. It is not ruled out that the number of victims could be higher since organized crime groups tend to take their own dead.
Authorities believe the arrest in July of Joaquín Guzmán López — son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada — one of Mexico’s oldest and most astute bosses — has since sparked clashes between the group led by “El Mayo” and another faction formed by the Chapitos, “El Chapo’s” sons.
Guzmán López allegedly orchestrated a trap to kidnap Zambada and take him with him to the United States on a private flight, where he turned himself in to the authorities of that country, although many aspects of this operation remain unclear.
For many, this internal struggle is something that creates more uncertainty. “Everyone knows each other, they know where one lives, where another lives, they come, they break into houses, they take relatives, and where they come across the army they shoot at them,” Ayala also explained.
Jesus, the retiree, also believes that when criminals who were once friends confront each other, it is worse for the population because they do not stop attacking each other, while when the clash is with the army, they generally tend to retreat a little.
“There is obviously a power struggle” within the Sinaloa Cartel, Bojórquez said. And “there is no government action against drug trafficking cells.”
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