Mexican president blames US for cartel killings as violence escalates in Sinaloa after leaders arrested

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday partly blamed the United States for a surge in cartel violence in the northern state of Sinaloa, which 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 power struggle since two of the cartel’s leaders were arrested in the United States in late July. Teams of gunmen have fired at each other and security forces.

Meanwhile, bodies continued to turn up around the city. On a busy street corner, cars drove past pools of blood leading to a body in a garage, while heavily armed police in black masks picked up another body that lay sprawled on a side street in the Sinaloa city.

When asked during his morning briefing whether the U.S. government was “collectively responsible” for the violence in Sinaloa, the president replied: “Yes, of course … for carrying out this operation.”

The recent increase in the cartel war was expected after Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmanlanded on July 25 near El Paso, Texas in a small plane with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

Zambada was the cartel’s senior figure and a reclusive leader. After his arrest, he said in a letter distributed by his lawyer that he kidnapped by the younger Guzmán and taken to the U.S. against his will. Zambada pleaded not guilty last week in New York in a drug trafficking case in which he is accused of being involved in murder plots and ordering torture.

On Thursday afternoon, a new military operation took place north of Culiacan, with military and circling helicopters.

Traffic was heavy in Culiacan and most schools were open, although parents still weren’t sending their children to school. Businesses continue to close early and few people venture outside after dark. As the city slowly reopens and soldiers patrol the streets, many families remain in hiding, with parents and teachers fearful of being caught in the crossfire.

“Where is the safety for our children, for ourselves and for all the citizens? It is so dangerous here, you don’t want to go out,” a mother from Culiacán told the Associated Press.

The mother, who did not want to give her name for fear of the cartels, said that although some schools have recently reopened, she has not allowed her daughter to go for two weeks. She said she was afraid to do so after gunmen flagged down a taxi they were in on their way home, terrifying her child.

“Hugs, not bullets”

During his morning press conference, López Obrador claimed that US authorities had carried out “that operation” to arrest Zambada and that “it was completely illegal, and that agents from the Department of Justice were waiting for Mr. Mayo.”

“If we are now dealing with instability and conflict in Sinaloa, it is because they (the US government) made that decision,” he said.

He added that “there can be no cooperative relationship if they make unilateral decisions” such as this. Mexican prosecutors have said they are considering filing treason charges against those involved in the plan to arrest Zambada.

He was supported by the president-elect Claudia Sheinbaumwho said later in the day that “we can never accept that there is no communication or cooperation.”

It is the latest escalation of tensions in U.S.-Mexico relations. Last month, the Mexican president said he was putting ties with the U.S. and Canadian embassies “on hold” after ambassadors criticized his controversial plan to overhaul Mexico’s judiciary by requiring all judges to run for office.

Still, Zambada’s arrest has drawn criticism of López Obrador, who has refused to confront the cartels throughout his time in office, using a strategy he describes as “hugs, not bullets.” On previous occasions, he has falsely claimed that the cartels respect Mexican citizens and fight primarily among themselves.

While the president, who is leaving office at the end of the month, has promised that his plan will reduce cartel violence, such clashes continue to plague Mexico. Cartels are using an increasing range of tactics, including roadside bombs, or IEDs, trenches, homemade armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones.

Last week, López Obrador publicly asked Sinaloa’s warring factions to act “responsibly,” noting that he believed the cartels would listen to him. But the bloodshed has only continued.

In a strange twistLast month, Mexican prosecutors said they would charge Guzmán with Zambada’s kidnapping, but also cited another charge under a section of Mexico’s penal code that says what he did constitutes treason.

Nowhere in the affidavit does it mention that the younger Guzmán was a member of the Chapitos — “little Chapos” — faction of the Sinaloa cartel, made up of Chapo’s sons, which smuggles millions of doses of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, causing about 70,000 overdose deaths each year. According to a 2023 U.S. Justice Department indictment, the Chapitos and their cartel partners used corkscrews, electrocution and hot peppers to smuggle torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers.”

El Chapo, the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado after he… convicted in 2019 for drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related crimes, among other things.

Last year, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message to the President of Mexico, claiming that he had been a victim of “psychological abuse” in prison.