7 security forces dead, 21 civilians injured in capture of El Chapo’s son
In Mexico, the northern Sinaloa state governor, Ruben Rocha, said seven members of the security forces had been killed, including a colonel, and 21 injured during the uprising in the city caused by the capture of the drug cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman, son of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The Mexican security officials said the violence took place largely in the city of Culiacan, home to the powerful drug cartel of the same name that El Chapo headed before his extradition to the United States in 2017. Meanwhile, these events are occurring ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit next week.
Rocha said there had been 12 clashes with the security forces, 25 acts of looting, and 250 vehicles had been set on fire and used to block roads.
“Tomorrow, we think we will work normally. However, he added, “I haven’t discussed calling more reinforcements from the army or the National Guard.”
A failed operation to detain Ovidio in 2019 ended in humiliation for the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after the arrest triggered a wave of violence that forced authorities to shutter Culiacan’s schools and airports.
Ovidio, who had become prominent in his father’s arrest, was quickly released to end violent retribution from his cartel. Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval confirmed the capture of the 32-year-old on Thursday, saying Ovidio was being held in the capital, Mexico City.
The city’s airport was caught up in the violence, with Mexican airline Aeromexico saying one of its planes had been hit by gunfire ahead of a scheduled flight to Mexico City. No one was hurt, it said. David Tellez, a passenger who boarded the plane with his wife and three children, said they had stayed in the airport until it was safe to leave.
“The city is worse. There is a lot of shooting and confusion,“ he said.
The federal aviation agency said they also shot a Mexican air force plane. The airport in Culiacan and in the Sinaloa cities of Mazatlan and Los Mochis would remain closed until they could ensure security.
Ovidio’s latest capture comes before a North American leaders’ summit in Mexico City next week, which U.S. President Joe Biden will attend and is expected to discuss security. The United States had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Ovidio’s arrest or conviction. It is unclear whether Ovidio will be extradited to the United States like his father, who is serving a life sentence at Colorado’s Supermax, the most secure U.S. federal prison.
A surge in overdose deaths in the United States, fuelled by the synthetic opioid fentanyl, has led to increased pressure on Mexico to combat organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel, responsible for producing and shipping the drug. The cartel is one of the world’s most powerful narcotics trafficking organizations.
“The arrest helps Mexican law enforcement save face following Ovidio’s 2019 release from custody,” said Tomas Guevara, a security expert at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.
“It might also herald a change in approach by the government after criticism from many security experts that Lopez Obrador was soft on the cartels, an accusation he denies,” Guevara said,
The president argues the confrontational tactics of his predecessors were unsuccessful and only caused more bloodshed, saying he would instead pursue a strategy of hugs, not bullets. The security forces attempted to control the violent response to the arrest in Culiacan with heavily armed teams patrolling in pickup trucks. “We continue to work on controlling the situation,” said Cristobal Castaneda, Sinaloa’s public security chief.
Authorities urged people to stay indoors and said schools and administrative offices were closed because of the violence. They had also erected street blockades. Joaquin Guzman, 65, was convicted in New York in 2019 of trafficking billions of dollars of drugs to the United States and conspiring to murder enemies.
Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia Consulting, which analyses Mexican organized crime, said pressure from the Biden administration to target the Sinaloa Cartel had likely motivated Mexico to go after Guzman.
But he warned that while Ovidio’s capture was likely to weaken that cartel, it could help its main rival, the notoriously violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel. “It’s very important the government remembers the weakening of the Sinaloa Cartel may also bring about an even greater expansion, a greater presence of the Jalisco Cartel.”
Reuters/S.O
