a bloody and fratricidal struggle within a cartel in the Mexican state of Sinaloa

A few weeks after the arrest of the historic leader of the Sinaloa cartel, violent clashes have left at least 70 dead over the past two weeks in Culiacan, the capital of this state which has become the hub of fentanyl trafficking, a synthetic drug which is wreaking havoc in the United States.

Deserted public places, closed schools, stopped transportation, and bodies that multiply. This is the atmosphere that has reigned since the beginning of September in the city of Culiacan, capital of the state of Sinaloa, in the northwest of Mexico. The city is not known for its calm, it is unfortunately used to these violent events, since the cartel bearing the name of the region has developed a power that makes it today one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world.

A cartel that is torn between its two main branches, causing scenes of war in the middle of the street. These bloody clashes have already left at least 70 dead, not counting the dozens of kidnappings or disappearances, despite the intervention of the army. War has been declared since the arrest, at the end of July, of the historic leader of the cartel, Ismael Zambada Garcia, nicknamed “The Mayo“. A drug lord 76-year-old founder of the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin Guzman, who was known under the alias “El Chapo“, and whose arrest and trial in the United States caused a great stir, inspiring series producers.

The Mayo was picked up as he got off a private plane in Texas, where he had been seated with the son of his former rival, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who took over from his father as head of the “Chapitos“. An arrest surrounded by mystery, with the two men accusing each other of having handed the other over, and carried out in the greatest secrecy by the American authorities, who did not inform the Mexican government of the operation.

The snub has caused a major diplomatic chill between Mexico and Washington, and illustrates the American distrust of Mexican authorities, in a country riddled with corruption. The Sinaloa cartel is particularly in the American crosshairs, because it has become the hub of fentanyl trafficking, as shown by the incredible investigation by the newspaper The WorldThis synthetic opiate, imported from China and transformed by traffickers, is spreading in the United States where it is causing havoc, with an estimate of at least 80,000 deaths per year from overdoses.

It is in this context that the mandate of the Mexican president ends. Angel Miguel Lopez Obrador, known as “AMLO“will hand over power at the beginning of October to Claudia Sheinbaum, who will become the first woman to lead this country of nearly 130 million inhabitants. Having come to power in 2018 with the slogan “Hugs, no hugs“(“hugs, not shootings“), AMLO maintains his popularity intact, but his security record is far from his initial ambitions. After giving a lot of power to the army, his mandate will have been marked by 193,000 homicides and more than 50,000 disappearances.