17% of Choixeños, according to the latest census of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) of 2020, lack decent housing. Some live in houses with tin and cardboard walls, unstable roofs and dirt floors as if it were another time in Mexico. The historian Óscar Loza Ochoa, founder of the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Sinaloa, describes that this circumstance, in some cases, is more serious. “People have tended to live in caves. It is the mount. And there are indigenous groups that have made homes there.”
On Friday afternoon, Choix, Sinaloa, was mentioned internationally. The Secretary of the Navy reported that Rafael Caro Quintero, the founder of the extinct Guadalajara Cartel and who for decades was detained in that piece of the mountain The United States Drug Enforcement Agency has accused the murder of one of its elements, Enrique “Kiki” Camarena , in the 80s of the last century. The legendary drug man was found in the bushes of the San Simón community due to the sense of smell of Max, a dog.
Merrick B. Garland, attorney general, in a statement issued by the United States Department of Justice, said: “There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures and murders American law enforcement.”
Why there?
In 2010, the war against organized crime launched by the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) broke up the Beltrán Leyva cartel and left several fragments. The study “The Mythification of Chapo”, signed by researcher Scott Stewart, from the StratFor intelligence agency, identified one of these cells as “Los Mazatlecos” and warned of their expansion in northern Sinaloa.
The federal and state governments recognized that a new criminal group was advancing in the El Fuerte valley, heading to Choix, to fight for control of land for planting the so-called Sinaloa Cartel. The last Government Report of Enrique Peña Nieto indicated that during his six-year term, that group was among the 122 targets of his, while the state government deployed ministerial police in the region to persecute him.
In turn, the United States government filed an accusation against one of the alleged leaders of “Los Mazatlecos”, Isidro Meza Flores “Chapo” Isidro, in a Federal Court of First Instance in Columbia. The FBI, in turn, posted a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
In Choix, Sinaloa, this story came out expensive. “Los Mazatlecos” sought refuge in their mountains and in their wake burned the homes of hundreds of people in 28 communities, as reflected in recommendation 39/2017 of the National Human Rights Commission in 2017. This flow of people who left the municipality left empty towns and vanished from official and unofficial counts.
