A truck burns in a street of Culiacan, state of Sinaloa, Mexico, on October 17, 2019 |
MEXICO CITY
Heavy gunfire consumed the streets of Culiacan
on Thursday afternoon, as Mexican security forces struggled to fend off members
of the Sinaloa cartel, once led by notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo”
Guzman.
Members of
the cartel deployed across the city with military-grade weapons, a remarkable,
live-streamed glimpse into their ability to overwhelm the state.
But as the
members of the cartel took to the streets, apparently freeing dozens of
prisoners and turning the city into an urban war zone, Mexican authorities
decided to release Ovidio Guzman.
Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told Reuters that Guzman was
released to protect lives.
The
decision to detain and then almost immediately release one of Mexico’s most
wanted drug traffickers — who has also been indicted by the U.S. Justice
Department — would be a shocking display of weakness for Mexico’s government,
revealing how entrenched the country’s leading drug cartel remains, even after
the arrest of El Chapo.
In a video
statement, top officials from Mexico’s security agencies described how agents
came under attack by armed men from a house while on patrol.
“The
personnel fired back and took control of the house, in which they found four
occupants. During that action, one of them was identified as Ovidio Guzmán
López,” said Durazo.
“This
resulted in various groups of organized crime groups who surrounded the house
with a greater firepower than that of the patrol. In addition, other groups
carried out violent actions against residents in various parts of the city,
creating panic.”
Durazo did
not initially confirm that Guzman was arrested or freed, offering a vaguely
worded description of events that bewildered many security experts.
“But Ovidio
was arrested or returned to the narcos?” asked analyst Héctor de Mauleón in a
tweet.
Within an
hour, Reuters and several Mexican news outlets reported that Guzman had been
released.
Mexican
President Andrés Manuel López Obrado did not issue any statements about the
attack. But he was stopped at the airport by people who filmed him while asking
questions about Sinaloa. “We’ll talk tomorrow,” he replied.
Videos
circulating on social media appeared to show heavily armed civilians firing
machine guns mounted in pickup trucks.
Sinaloa’s
public security director, Cristóbal Castañeda, told Milenio television that
between 20 and 30 prisoners had escaped during the operation, although some had
been recaptured.
Another
video on social media purported to show inmates running through the streets,
forcing drivers out of their cars.
“They’re
freeing them,” exclaims a woman in one video. “We can’t leave here.”
By 9 p.m.,
the fighting appeared ongoing. Improvised roadblocks were constructed with
vehicles set on fire. Some people sprinted through the streets holding their
children to make it from one building to another to avoid gunfire.
Government
officials warned residents not to venture into certain parts of the city.
Culiacan in
northwestern Mexico is the stronghold of the Sinaloa cartel and where the
organization has ample support and firepower — demonstrated Thursday across
that city.
The cartel
has remained the largest organized crime group in the country for nearly three
decades and continues to be the most prominent cartel across major parts of the
country.
Its biggest
rival, the New Generation cartel of Jalisco, is growing fast and has been
expanding its territory across Mexico, seeking to fill the void El Chapo
left.
Since the
capture of El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel has been led primarily by Ismael “El
Mayo” Zambada and El Chapo’s sons Jesús Alfredo Guzmán and Iván Archivaldo
Guzmán.
In
February, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment against two more
of El Chapo’s sons, Ovidio Guzman and Joaquín Guzmán López, for
“knowingly, intentionally, and willfully” distributing drugs to be exported
into the United States. They would have to be extradited to the United States
to face trial on those charges.
During El
Chapo’s trial in New York this year, prosecutors said that the sons had played
a role in facilitating their father’s escape in 2015 from a maximum-security
prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico.
‘El Chapo’ Guzman is escorted by soldiers in Mexico City in 2016. |
El Mayo has
long remained an elusive figure who, unlike El Chapo, has stayed largely out of
the spotlight. There have been reported tensions between the leader and the two
Guzmán sons in recent months.
Drugs
continue to flow into the United States unabated as the Sinaloa cartel has
ramped up its production of methamphetamines and fentanyl.
Lopez
Obrador has backed away from an aggressive military-led strategy to defeat the
cartels, which many of his predecessors championed.
On
Thursday, Mexican officials were quick to depict the day’s incident as security
forces acting in self-defense, rather than a planned takedown of one of
Mexico’s most wanted men.
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