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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS