Since Monday, September 9, clashes between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel have intensified, attributed to the arrest in July of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, his godson, a case in which the former accused having been betrayed to be handed over to United States authorities.
According to local authorities, there have been more than 30 murders and thirty disappearances so far in the last week alone, when attacks between both sides, the “mayiza” against the “chapitos”, have intensified.
The violence has caused psychosis and the closure of work, business and school activities, a situation that led to the cancellation, the day before, of the national celebrations that were being held publicly in the center of the capital.
This Monday at a press conference, Leana Ojeda insisted that returning to peace depends on the groups in dispute, because there has always been a military and security presence.
“It depends on them, they are the ones who want to carry out the attacks and they are the ones who are taking lives. Not us, on the contrary, we are here to prevent them from having confrontations and from losing lives,” he said.
He mentioned that there are more than three thousand elements of the Army, National Guard and Air Force, plus National Guard personnel deployed throughout the state.
“We are not going to leave them. It is a presidential instruction, it is an order from the general secretary of National Defense that we be coordinated here in the state of Sinaloa. Here we are and here we will continue to be the Army, the Air Force,” he explained.
He said that there have been “good results” from the strategy they have followed, because “we are constantly planning to contain the attacks between them, between factions, and we have had good results.”