Violence in Sinaloa leaves at least 18 dead in less than a week, according to the local Prosecutor’s Office

( Spanish) – At least 18 people have died between Monday and Wednesday of this week in Sinaloa in events that are being investigated as “intentional homicide,” according to data collected until this Thursday by the state Attorney General’s Officelocated in the northwest of Mexico.

The wave of violence has been such that the Autonomous University of Sinaloathe main one in the state, announced that it would suspend in-person classes on its campuses in the capital, Culiacán, and Navolato, at least until next Monday.

The growing violence in Sinaloa registered a notable increase since the arrest in the United States of drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who was captured in Texas along with Joaquín Guzmán López, son of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in a controversial incident that fueled tensions between the government of then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the United States Government.

López Obrador even suggested, without presenting evidence, the existence of an alleged “agreement” between the US Department of Justice and one of the organized crime groups behind the capture of Zambada and Guzmán. The version has been rejected by the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, who assured that his country had cooperated and delivered documents on Zambada’s arrest.

The violence in Sinaloa, the birthplace state of the cartel that bears the same name, has caused more than 190 deaths and damage to its economy as of October, to the extent that the local government applied an emerging plan that includes tax discounts and microcredits.