(Culiacán) At least 15 people have been killed since Monday in northwest Mexico in clashes linked to an open war within the Sinaloa cartel founded by drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, according to the local prosecutor’s report on Friday.
Security force reinforcements have been sent to Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, where bodies are sometimes found lying on the road. A total of 20 people are also missing.
Schools closed, businesses paralyzed, independence celebrations canceled: armed clashes between two cartel clans are terrorizing this city of almost a million inhabitants.
In a statement, the State Department strongly advised U.S. citizens not to travel to the region, reporting “car thefts, shootings, security force operations, road blockades, vehicles set on fire.”
The armed clashes “are a result” of the events of July 25, Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya told the press.
PHOTO IVAN MEDINA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Security force reinforcements have been sent to Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, where bodies sometimes lie on the road.
That day, the cartel’s co-founder, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, was arrested in the southern United States along with one of “Chapo” Guzman’s sons.
“El Mayo” accused the son of his former partner of betraying him to hasten his arrest.
The violence is “surely” the result of the fight between the supporters of El Mayo and those of the sons of Chapo, alias the “Chapitos,” the governor said.
Due to the violence, the September 15 Independence Day celebrations were canceled on Sunday, the governor said: “There will be no festivities, neither public nor private.”
Schools were completely closed on Thursday and Friday.
Closed shops, panic buying, fear of shortages in supermarkets: the violence is also affecting the local economy.
At least 2,000 people have given up coming to work for fear of violence, according to shopkeepers.
“El Mayo” Zambada pleaded “not guilty” to drug trafficking charges in a New York court on Friday.
For his part, “El Chapo” is serving a life sentence in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.
PHOTO HENRY ROMERO, REUTERS
Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador alongside President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum
This Friday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mentioned “some problems” as hundreds of military personnel were deployed.
“There is the army, the navy, the national guard,” he said, asking residents to “act with caution, but without alarmism.”
The president also called on the belligerents to “act with a minimum of responsibility.”
Culiacán was shaken by violence on January 5 during the arrest of Ovidio, another son of the “Chapo” (29 dead, including 10 soldiers). He has since been extradited to the United States.