Image source, Getty Images
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- Author, Daniel Pardo
- Author's title, BBC World correspondent in Mexico
The war that the different factions of the Sinaloa cartel have looked almost a year left on Monday one of its bloodiest episodes.
The State Prosecutor's Office in northwestern Mexico confirmed the discovery on a road with four beheaded bodies hanging on a bridge and 16 more inside a truck.
“At the scene, on the bridge, four beheaded bodies were located, as well as a bag containing five cephalic extremities,” the entity said.
“Within a truck, fifteen complete bodies and a beheaded body were located. All victims are male sex and present indications of wounds by firearm projectile,” he added.
The authorities also said they found a cloth with written messages in which the murder is attributed to the faction of “Los Mayitos”, which faces “Los Chapitos” for the control of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most powerful in the world.
After the arrest in July 2024 of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the leaders and co -founders of the poster, in Culiacán a war began between his heirs and the children of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the other important head of the group.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, since the conflict began, which has spread to the surrounding states, around 2,000 people have been killed or missing.
The conflict in Sinaloa has become one of the foci of the strategy of the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, to deal with the violence that ravages her country.
Image source, Getty Images
A war that has no end
The Sinaloa poster was one of the pioneers, in the 70s, to take advantage of the demand for illicit drugs in the United States.
At that time, Guzmán and Zambada were partners.
The first was dedicated to setting up an army to defend its drug trafficking network and the second to weave alliances with politicians and companies that allowed the consolidation of a criminal group with more activities than drug trafficking.
Half a century later, the Sinaloa poster is one of the largest organized crime organizations in the world, with representation on practically all continents.
As its power has been growing, splits and internal struggles have been increasingly frequent, especially after the arrest or murder of some of its high positions.
Zambada, 77, had never stepped on a prison, was the natural leader of the organization and his detention in the United States almost a year ago a turning point in the organization's history.
Although the details of his arrest are not entirely known, the most accepted version is that one of Guzmán's children cheated him and handed it to US authorities as part of a wide negotiation to achieve judicial benefits.
Joaquín Guzmán was extradited to the US and received a life sentence in a court in New York in 2019.
Their children Ovid and Joaquin are also imprisoned in the United States and collaborate with the authorities in search of a reduction of their sorrows, while two of their offspring, Iván and Alfredo, continue in Mexico and lead the dispute with “Los Mayitos”.
Ismael Zambada Sicairos, aka “Mayito Flaco”, is the one who leads to rival faction.
Image source, Getty Images
Impact on Washington
The emergency in Sinaloa has become the biggest challenge for the Sheinbaum government.
Its Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, has spent much of this year in the state and has achieved raids, dismantling of laboratories and dozens of arrests.
And in February they captured two important collaborators of the children of Guzmán.
Although the Government announced figures that showed a reduction in homicides, the disappearances have increased exponentially. And every week a new tragic event arises that reminds of Mexicans, and the world, that the crisis of violence is in force.
The emergency of security, and the feeling that violence in Mexico is unleashed, has implications in the negotiating table that the country maintains with the Donald Trump government.
The American president uses any of this news to feed his theory that Mexico exports violence to the United States and that his army should cross the border to help Mexican authorities.
In the table, in addition, commercial and migratory measures are negotiated that, since the arrival of Trump, are treated at the same time that security issues.
Mexico has militarized the border, sent about thirty capos to the United States and its anti -drug policy with a hard hand.
But, to the extent that there are cases such as the one reported Monday in Sinaloa, the Seinbaum government maneuver is still reduced.
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