Author: Daniel Pardo
Title: Correspondent for BBC Mundo in Mexico
Shootings, kidnappings, fires: The city of Culiacán, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, is experiencing a sort of civil war.
This is how Ioan Grillo, an English journalist who has been covering violence in Mexico for 24 years, describes it. He was in the area last week, in the northeast of the country, reporting on the open combat that has been ongoing for two weeks and has resulted in an estimated 50 deaths and 70 kidnappings.
The security crisis, which is not the first, is one of the consequences of the arrest by the United States of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The power vacuum left behind has led to a struggle for leadership between two factions of the organization: “the Mayos,” children and allies of Zambada, and “the Chapitos,” children and allies of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is also detained in the US.
The arrest of Zambada on July 25 seems to have been part of this dispute for control of one of the largest cartels in the world: by boarding a plane with Joaquín Guzmán López, one of El Chapo’s sons, El Mayo signed his surrender to US authorities.
Although the details of the detention of a capo who spent half a century in illegality without setting foot in a prison remain unclear, and even President Andrés Manuel López Obrador criticized Washington for an “illegal act,” it is increasingly clear that the arrest was part of the struggle for cartel dominance.
Grillo’s investigations, based on conversations with actors and officials from both countries, have been exposing this exclusively over the past few weeks.
At 51, the reporter has written three books about the narco and produced dozens of documentaries. He has won prestigious journalism awards, reported on crime in all 32 Mexican states, and has an in-depth knowledge of not only cartel practices but also their links to legal life and their relationship with the communities they control.
BBC Mundo interviewed him to understand what is behind the pitched battle in Culiacán.
What is happening in Culiacán?
I have been to Sinaloa 14 times and have been covering the narco for decades, and I have never seen a civil war like the one happening after the arrest of El Mayo.
The city is paralyzed. Previously, it was two or three days in small towns with a certain tradition of violence, but now it is in a capital of one million inhabitants. Children are not going to school, many businesses are not operating, and there is a food shortage in the surrounding towns.
Apart from the civil war between the two factions of the Cartel, which is intense, there are two things that are different this time: people have imposed a curfew on themselves, and social media is proliferating fear with very raw, false, and true videos that create an overwhelming sensation.
And there is much that is unknown because local journalists are not going out at night or to rural areas. The figure of 50 homicides is limited. You see that there are strong shootouts at night that no one covers and do not reach official reports.
One catches the fear, feels adrenaline at its peak, something I never felt in other places.
“Why does this always happen when a cartel leader is arrested or killed?”
The problem of drug trafficking and organized crime, which are two different but related things, is that when you remove elements, others appear.
But it is believed that if you take down the heads, the capos, this doesn’t happen, and that has been the strategy of U.S. agencies: what they call “the kingpin strategy.”
However, if the heads are not automatically replaced, there are still consequences, because their removal disrupts the existing order and starts a struggle to replace them.
This order is mainly in the bases of the factions, where the younger elements are, who are also the most violent.
So, the more heads you remove, the more violence you sow.
Is it a failed strategy?
Well, in any case, there is no other. Neither in Mexico nor in the United States. And the question is: what to do. One can criticize a lot, speculate, but the truth is that it is very easy to propose and very difficult to achieve results.
AMLO says that the arrest of El Mayo was illegal and irresponsible because it generated this crisis of violence. What do you think?
He is right that the detention, through a kidnapping, lacked strategy, because everything indicates that agents from U.S. agencies worked with “the Chapitos.”
The arrest was not carried out by the Navy or the Army, but by “the Chapitos.” And that generates more violence.
And he has a point in that there is no discussion about the consequences of the strategy of taking down the capos and turning detainees into protected witnesses.
Where he is wrong is that he is the president of Mexico and has the responsibility to provide security to the population. How are you going to tell people that it is someone else’s fault? You have to face it. You cannot renounce exercising your power as a state.
How does this affect the relationship and collaboration between the two countries?
I don’t think the statement has an effect, but in more general terms, there have been changes that heat up the relationship and violence.
One, because of fentanyl, which began to be manufactured in 2013 but skyrocketed in 2020. This generates the idea that we need to be tougher, more violent, with the cartels.
Then there is AMLO’s idea of limiting the DEA’s actions, which was done, but did not prevent, for example, the arrest of Zambada.
But then you wonder what good a different strategy is, that is, when both countries fully collaborated in the fight against drug trafficking, as happened during the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012).
It also did not work to stop the violence, and on the contrary, it increased, and the Mexican official most supported by the U.S. at the time (Genaro García Luna) is now accused there of being a narco.
That said, the relationship works well in other aspects: trade between the two is better than ever, and Mexico has reduced the number of migrants for three periods with detentions and deportations.
What is the Sinaloa Cartel?
It is a federation of criminal groups. Its origin is the drug trafficking business a century ago in Sinaloa.
“El Mayo” started in drug trafficking in the 60s. “El Chapo” in the 70s.
The federation is in other states of Mexico: Baja California, Ciudad Juárez, Sonora.
They have an articulated system with several leaders, the two most powerful being El Chapo, the public version, and El Mayo, the low-profile version.
In recent years, a cold war has started between them, and now it is a civil war.
And their factions have been linked to other businesses. The Sinaloans are the most involved in drug trafficking. The Chapitos, it is reported, receive money from the brewing industry. In Durango, they earn a lot from extorting the mining industry. Although the Michoacanos are the experts in extortion. In Sonora, they earn a lot from migrant trafficking.
What role did ‘El Mayo’ play in the Cartel?
He was the emblematic leader, a figure built over the years, a sort of national symbol for many. In half a century of illegality, he had never set foot in a cell.
Many of my colleagues did not want to believe the version of betrayal: they thought that if he was in the U.S., it was because he wanted to be.
But as information about the kidnapping emerged, coming from Cartel members, the U.S., and himself, it became clear that there was a struggle for control of the Cartel.
What do people in Culiacán say?
On one hand, there is social psychosis, fear; a man told me he had a nervous breakdown.
But on the other hand, there are people who support the Mayos more, who have the image of being old school, wearing sandals and hats, not bothering the people, and coming from the poppy and marijuana trade.
In contrast, the Chapitos are seen more as a new and more violent cartel, with opulence, moving synthetic drugs. In that sense, people believe the Mayos will win, but I see the Chapitos as very powerful.
The public wants there to be a winner, by agreement or by battle, to end the civil war.
Source: BBC
