{"id":29037,"date":"2023-01-07T04:16:24","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T04:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=29037"},"modified":"2023-01-07T04:16:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T04:16:26","slug":"24-hours-of-terror-as-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/01\/07\/24-hours-of-terror-as-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city\/","title":{"rendered":"24 hours of terror as cartel violence engulfs Mexican city"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00c1lvaro Arandas was approaching the check-in counter at Culiac\u00e1n international airport when the pandemonium began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could hear the shooting \u2013 huge blasts, so much noise,\u201d said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potos\u00ed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Arandas found himself scrambling for cover as security forces and cartel gunmen fought for control of an airfield that had become the latest frontline of a Latin American drug conflict that claims tens of thousands of lives every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was panic \u2026 people ditched their bags and their phones, they ditched everything, in order to take shelter,\u201d the 32-year-old remembered of the clashes at just after 8am on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ovidio
Ovidio Guzm\u00e1n Photograph: FBI\/ZUMA Press Wire\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-four hours later, Arandas remained stranded inside the airport, as Mexican troops battled to regain full control of Sinaloa\u2019s state capital after\u00a0the arrest of one of the country\u2019s most wanted men, Ovidio Guzm\u00e1n, sparked a day of bloodshed and chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 29 people lay dead, including 10 members of the military and 19 alleged cartel shooters, while 35 soldiers were wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Guzm\u00e1n, the 32-year-old son of former Sinaloa cartel chief\u00a0Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n, was behind bars in Mexico City after the latest bloody chapter in the history of his family\u2019s north-western domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNobody is above the law,\u201d Mexico\u2019s security chief, Rosa Icela Rodr\u00edguez, declared on Friday as she celebrated Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s detention on the eve of next week\u2019s visit by Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rosa
Rosa Icela Rodr\u00edguez during a press conference in Mexico City after the recapture of Ovidio Guzm\u00e1n Photograph: Gerardo Vieyra\/NurPhoto\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Culiac\u00e1n\u2019s day of drama began at about 4.40am on Thursday, according to the local newspaper Noroeste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-five miles north of the capital, near a rural fishing community called Jes\u00fas Mar\u00eda, security forces claimed they had spotted a convoy of around 25 cartel vehicles in which their target \u2013 AKA \u201cEl Rat\u00f3n\u201d (The Mouse) \u2013 was believed to be traveling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven soldiers were killed in the ensuing gun battle between troops and gangsters with .50 caliber machine guns desperate to avoid the arrest of Guzm\u00e1n, an alleged cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine trafficker for whose arrest the US had offered a $5m reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Black Hawk gunship pummeled one target with a 3,000-shots-per-minute, six-barrel machine gun similar to those US troops used in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Guzm\u00e1n was arrested \u2013 but worse was still to come, as cartel gunslingers marauded across Sinaloa state, torching vehicles, blocking roads and trying to seize control of Culiac\u00e1n\u2019s airport to stop authorities extracting their leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are asking citizens not to go out,\u201d Sinaloa\u2019s security secretary, Crist\u00f3bal Casta\u00f1eda, tweeted as the mayhem spread. \u201cWe will give you more information when we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heavily<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) chief Mike Vigil said Mexican authorities were partly responsible for the cartel\u2019s response to Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the drug boss was briefly detained in October 2019, president\u00a0Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador controversially ordered troops to free\u00a0him after gangsters brought the city to a standstill in a day remembered as Culiac\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cBlack Thursday\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Soldiers
Soldiers stand guard near burning vehicles on a street during the operation to arrest Guzm\u00e1n Photograph: Juan Carlos Cruz\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do not want war,\u201d L\u00f3pez Obrador, who is best known as Amlo, said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vigil said Amlo\u2019s decision had sent a clear message to the leaders of Mexico\u2019s two most feared organized crime groups, the Sinaloa and\u00a0Jalisco New Generation\u00a0cartels, \u201cthat if a leading member of the cartel was captured and you generated wholesale violence, there was a good possibility that they would be released\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was that on Thursday morning, Sinaloa gunmen decided to raise hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, they have developed a plan to seal off the entire city if they need it,\u201d Vigil said. \u201cThe reaction is equivalent to any well-trained military. They know exactly what they need to do. Everybody has responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of their plan appears to have been commandeering Culiac\u00e1n\u2019s airport and preventing military aircraft from landing there to fly their high-profile prisoner out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Arandas arrived at check-in, gangsters opened fire on both military and civilian planes \u2013 some still in flight \u2013 as well as airport buildings, Mexico\u2019s defense secretary, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo airforce planes \u2026 had to make emergency landings,\u201d after being hit by \u201ca considerable number\u201d of cartel bullets, Sandoval admitted in a breathtaking official account of the war-like violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The targeted planes included Aerom\u00e9xico\u2019s 8.24am flight to Mexico City, whose bewildered passengers were filmed crouching for cover between its dark blue seats as the assault unfolded around them. \u201cWhy?\u201d one frightened child can be heard asking a parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some analysts believe Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s arrest was intended as a gesture to Biden, whom Amlo is scheduled to meet in Mexico City on Monday to discuss issues such as migration and security, including Mexico\u2019s role in the US fentanyl crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight out of the Amlo playbook,\u201d one former senior US law enforcement official in Mexico\u00a0told Vice. \u201cPlays us like a fiddle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security expert \u00d3scar Balderas said the capture would allow Amlo to signal to the US that Mexico was capable of dealing effective blows to organized crime. Guzm\u00e1n was also a domestic \u201ctrophy\u201d Amlo could use to claim that his \u201cabrazos no balazos<\/em>\u201d (hugs not bullets) security policy \u2013 which puts fighting the social roots of crime above violent confrontation \u2013 was working. \u201cIt\u2019s a demonstration that his hugs, not bullets strategy isn\u2019t a strategy that means impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vigil called the capture of Guzm\u00e1n \u2013 who was spirited to Mexico City by helicopter \u2013 \u201ca victory for justice and the rule of law\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said the Sinaloa cartel was such a vast, horizontally run organization that his arrest was unlikely to make a major difference to its illegal operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Fentanyl<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey operate in six of the seven continents. The only continent they don\u2019t operate in is Antarctica because penguins don\u2019t have money to buy drugs,\u201d Vigil joked, adding: \u201c[This is] not going to have any impact on the violence in Mexico or the drugs coming into the US, especially fentanyl, which is the major crisis that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Friday afternoon, the violence appeared to have subsided in Culiac\u00e1n. The city\u2019s ghostly streets began to fill as cartel roadblocks were dismantled, although the state security secretary told locals to drive with their windows down if they were tinted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few expect the calm will last long. Some fear a power struggle between a weakened Sinaloa cartel and its Jalisco rivals. Others suspect a showdown is brewing between El Chapo\u2019s four sons, who are known as Los Chapitos, and gangsters loyal to the legendary cartel leader Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vigil warned that while normality may have returned to Culiac\u00e1n\u2019s streets, cartel bosses would soon order their \u201carmy of assassins\u201d to take revenge on military officials and their families for Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey will not let this stand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

source:theguardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c1lvaro Arandas was approaching the check-in counter at Culiac\u00e1n international airport when the pandemonium began. \u201cYou could hear the shooting \u2013 huge blasts, so much noise,\u201d said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potos\u00ed. Instead, Arandas found himself scrambling for cover as security forces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11363,5754,1079,9272,7247,5301,8217,6975,183,5178,6573,9778,10855,10446,1451,11583,12758,8700,6369,9214,11555,9331,6613,10767,10307,8440,9273,8516,6083,2884,9387,9304,11273,6144,4066,3209,6738,5455,8057,9018,6159,11355,10453,9807,3722,9390,1444,10321,10954,10046,2471,10419,9515,10342,7248,3947,12309,3797,1510,5445,65,5572,5612,12187,7964,11973,9275,11375,3805,11401,9274,5655,13008,10047,9276,5618,11325,11089,9178,6348,10885,10024,5251,3954,11359,594],"class_list":["post-29037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-aircraft","tag-airport","tag-aka","tag-alvaro-arandas","tag-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador","tag-antarctica","tag-army","tag-arrest","tag-assault","tag-biden","tag-black","tag-bloodshed","tag-blows","tag-burning","tag-businessman","tag-capital","tag-captured","tag-cartel","tag-chaos","tag-child","tag-citizens","tag-city","tag-cocaine","tag-conflict","tag-convoy","tag-crisis","tag-culiacan-international-airport","tag-dea","tag-dead","tag-demonstration","tag-detained","tag-detention","tag-drug","tag-drugs","tag-el","tag-el-chapo","tag-families","tag-family","tag-fear","tag-fentanyl","tag-fire","tag-flight","tag-guard","tag-gun","tag-guns","tag-helicopter","tag-hell","tag-illegal","tag-international","tag-joaquin-el-chapo-guzman","tag-joe-biden","tag-justice","tag-killed","tag-law","tag-lopez-obrador","tag-marijuana","tag-men","tag-mexican","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city","tag-migration","tag-military","tag-money","tag-n","tag-north","tag-one","tag-ovidio-guzman","tag-phones","tag-president","tag-rat","tag-san-luis-potosi","tag-security","tag-security-chief","tag-sinaloa","tag-sinaloa-cartel","tag-soldiers","tag-street","tag-terror","tag-troops","tag-us","tag-victory","tag-vietnam","tag-war","tag-will","tag-windows","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}