Mexican president partly blames US for rise in violence in Sinaloa

By Michael Rios, CNN, and Verónica Calderón and Ivonne Valdés, CNN en Español

(CNN) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has blamed the United States for a wave of violence in the state of Sinaloa, which has left dozens dead in the past two weeks and seen bodies repeatedly found on public streets and highways.

López Obrador suggested at a news conference on Thursday that Washington has helped fuel hostility between factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel by arresting two cartel leaders in the US.

On July 25, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, was arrested along with Joaquín Guzmán López, son of drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán, after they landed in a small plane near El Paso, Texas.

Zambada would later claim that he had been “ambushed” and “kidnapped” by Guzmán López and personally turned over to US authorities.

“A group of men attacked me, knocked me to the ground and put a dark-colored hood over my head,” Zambada said in a statement released by his lawyer in August, adding that he was bound and handcuffed, forced into the bed of a pickup truck, driven to an airstrip and forced onto a private jet to the U.S.

It remains unclear why Guzmán López surrendered to US authorities and took Zambada with him.

The Mexican president claimed that the US Justice Department had “agreements” with an organized criminal group that led to Zambada’s arrest, and also referred to the operation as a kidnapping.

CNN has asked the US Department of Justice for comment on López Obrador’s allegations.

US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar previously denied that Washington was involved in the operation that led to Zambada’s arrest.

“It was not an American plane, it was not an American pilot, it was not our agents or our people in Mexico. This was an operation between the cartels, where one handed power to the other,” he said on August 9.

‘In Sinaloa there was not the violence that there is now’

In the weeks following the arrests, violent clashes broke out in Sinaloa between what Mexican authorities call rival factions loyal to Zambada and led by other sons of “El Chapo.”

At least 49 people have been killed in the escalation of violence since September 9, according to official figures.

The Attorney General’s Office has reported that there have been numerous cases of bodies with gunshot wounds on streets, highways and other locations in Sinaloa.

The situation forced Governor Ruben Rocha Moya to suspend Independence Day celebrations last week and cancel classes at all levels for two days.

“In Sinaloa there was not as much violence as there is now,” the Mexican president said Thursday.

However, López Obrador denies that the situation in the state has gotten completely out of hand, stressing that Mexican authorities are addressing the situation.

“No, we are there, but we have had to take special measures and move elements of the armed forces and we have also lost officers who have been killed because of this special, extraordinary situation,” he said.

Mexican Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said Tuesday that at least two soldiers were killed in violence in Sinaloa last week.

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