President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, a party member of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) who will take office on October 1, supported the outgoing president’s position of prioritizing the protection of the population and preventing more violence from breaking out in Sinaloa.
“At the time of confrontation, entering with firepower would generate a war,” Sheinbaum told the press on Tuesday.
In this regard, President López Obrador said that the Mexican government will persist in its strategy of avoiding the confrontation of criminal groups in Sinaloa, where eight days of internal ‘war’ of a powerful drug cartel have left at least 32 dead.
“The protection of citizens, that is the first thing, that the people of Sinaloa have confidence that we are there (…) to protect them,” said López Obrador during his daily press conference.
The president added that “part of that first task” is to prevent criminal groups “from confronting each other and losing lives.”
The dead and detained after 8 days of ‘war’ in Sinaloa
Since September 9, the conflict between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the main cartels in the country, has caused armed clashes, roadblocks and widespread anxiety affecting more than a million inhabitants in this state on the Pacific coast.
The uprising has already claimed at least 30 civilian lives – 22 in Culiacán, the state capital – and two military personnel, an officer and a sergeant, according to the report of the Secretary of Defense (Sedena).
In recent weeks, there have been clashes between armed groups and military personnel in various parts of Sinaloa. (José Betanzos Zárate )
State government figures, however, reported 39 deaths as of Monday, without specifying whether all the victims are linked to the cartel’s internal conflict.
The security forces have suffered 13 attacks so far, nine against the army and four against the National Guard, which left nine soldiers injured, said the head of the Sedena, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, during the presidential press conference.
He added that 30 members of criminal organizations have been arrested and that 2,200 members of the security forces are deployed in the area.
The arrest of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada escalated the crisis
The violence in Sinaloa “derives” from the arrest on July 25 in the United States of the capo Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García, acknowledged last week the governor of the state, Rubén Rocha Moya.
Former partner of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán and co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, ‘El Mayo’ was arrested with one of Guzmán Loera’s sons, whom he accuses of having betrayed him and handed him over to US authorities, thereby unleashing the dispute within the criminal group.
Source: elfinanciero
