Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday blamed the US in part for a surge in cartel violence in the northern state of Sinaloa that has left at least 30 people dead in the past week.
Two warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel have clashed in the state capital of Culiacan in what appears to be a fight for power after two of its leaders were arrested in the US in late July.
Teams of gunmen have shot at each other and the security forces.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, dead bodies continued to be found across the city. On one busy street corner, cars drove by pools of the blood leading to a body in a car mechanic shop, while heavily armed police in black masks loaded up another body stretched out on a side street.
Asked at his morning briefing if the US government was “jointly responsible” for the violence in Sinaloa, the president said: “Yes, of course ... for having carried out this operation.”
The recent surge in cartel warfare had been expected after Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, landed near El Paso, Texas, on July 25 in a small plane with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Zambada was the cartel’s elder figure and reclusive leader.
After his arrest, he said in a letter circulated by his lawyer that he had been abducted by the younger Guzman and taken to the US against his will.
On Thursday afternoon, another military operation covered the north of Culiacan with military and circling helicopters.
Traffic was heavy in Culiacan and most schools were open, even though parents were still not sending their children to classes. Businesses continue to close early and few people venture out after dark. While the city has slowly reopened and soldiers patrol the streets, many families continue to hide, with parents and teachers fearing they will be caught in the crossfire.
“Where is the security for our children, for ourselves too, for all citizens? It’s so dangerous here, you don’t want to go outside,” one Culiacan mother told reporters.
The mother, who did not want to share her name out of fear of the cartels, said that while some schools have recently reopened, she has not allowed her daughter to go for two weeks.
She said she was scared to do so after armed men stopped a taxi they were traveling in on their way home, terrifying her child.
During his morning news briefing, Lopez Obrador said that US authorities “carried out that operation” to capture Zambada and that “it was totally illegal, and agents from the [US] Department of Justice were waiting for Mr Mayo.”
“If we are now facing instability and clashes in Sinaloa, it is because they [the US government] made that decision,” he said.
There “cannot be a cooperative relationship if they take unilateral decisions” like this, he added.
Mexican prosecutors have said they were considering bringing treason charges against those involved in the plan to nab Zambada.
Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum later in the day said that “we can never accept that there is no communication or collaboration” with the US.
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