Shocking images. In Mexico, violence has erupted in particular on the streets of Culiacán, a city in the northwest of the country, in recent days, between drug cartels and police forces. A climate of tension unleashed on Thursday the arrest of the son of the famous drug trafficker “El Chapo”.
• What is the extent of the violence?
The situation is out of control in the state of Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico. In the city of Culiacán in particular, videos posted on social networks show burned vehicles and exchanges of fire in the streets between security forces and armed men. Gunfire also erupted from a currently unidentified helicopter.
According to a provisional report delivered by the state governor, a national guard died and 28 people are currently hospitalized.
The city’s airport was also plagued by violence, when an Aeroméxico plane was attacked shortly after takeoff. An impressive scene, but one that caused no injuries.
The airport, as well as that of Mazatlán and Los Mochis, two other cities in the state of Sinaloa, remain closed as a security measure. Schools and administrative places also keep the door closed.
• What triggered the violence?
The scenes of violence begin after the arrest on Thursday of Ovidio Guzmán, son of the famous Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán, nicknamed “El Chapo” (the little one), currently imprisoned in the United States.
The operation is carried out in Culiacán before the 32-year-old man, also a drug trafficker, is transferred to Mexico City to be heard by the Prosecutor’s Office. He is then transferred by helicopter to the El Altiplano jail.
In addition to the son of ‘El Chapo’, another gang leader was assassinated, allied to the Juárez cartel, opposed to that of Ovidio Guzmán. This is Ernesto Piñón, alias “El Neto”, who escaped from prison on Sunday after an armed attack on the prison.
• What do we know about the son of ‘El Chapo’?
Ovidio Guzmán, a 32-year-old Mexican, is the son of “El Chapo”. Nicknamed “El Ratón”, he is accused of leading the Los Menores faction, linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, according to the Defense Secretariat.
In 2008, he embarked on drug trafficking, after the death of his brother Edgar, shot to death. With his other three brothers, Joaquín, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, he bought marijuana in Mexico, cocaine in Colombia and ephedrine in Argentina to produce methamphetamine that he later sold in Canada and the United States.
Laboratories run by Ovidio Guzmán produce around 1,360 kg to 2,200 kg of methamphetamine per month, according to US authorities.
• Why is his arrest a big blow?
The son of a famous drug trafficker, the hero of a television series produced by Netflix in 2017, and an influential drug trafficker himself, “El Ratón” has been wanted for years by the Mexican authorities.
In 2019 he was even arrested for the first time, but this arrest already unleashed a wave of violence in Culiacán at the time. To calm the situation, the drug trafficker is released by order of the president who says he wants to avoid a bloodbath.
This decision, highly criticized, is considered a humiliation for the Mexican authorities.
• Why did the United States claim his capture?
$5 million reward. This is what the United States offered in exchange for the arrest of “El Raton”. Branded an “important member of the Sinaloa cartel” by a press release from US authorities published on December 16, the drug lord is indeed closely watched in the United States, where the drug lord sells much of his production.
Joe Biden’s country is currently facing a rising number of overdose deaths from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that causes rapid addiction. Therefore, the US authorities are intensifying the pressure on the Mexican drug cartels behind the production and delivery of their products to the United States.
President Joe Biden is expected to arrive in Mexico on Sunday for an official visit and a North American summit.
Source: BFM TV
