Just one day after Culiacán’s Secretary of Public Security, Colonel Alejandro Bravo, was ambushed and shot in the Terranova neighborhood by an armed group that used tire spikes to cover their escape, another attack occurred in the Sinaloa capital, targeting the state leader of the Citizens’ Movement party, Sergio Torres Félix, and local congresswoman Elizabeth Montoya Ojeda.
Both legislators had just requested permission to leave the Congress building during the appearance of the Secretary of Administration and Finance, Joaquín Landeros Güicho. They were heading to the Culiacán airport to fly to Mexico City. Around noon, they were intercepted on Paseo Niños Héroes, on the Malecón Viejo (Old Boardwalk), very close to the Citizens’ Movement offices.
Torres Félix underwent surgery after being shot in the head and was later taken to an intensive care unit. Congresswoman Montoya, also wounded, was reported by Governor Rubén Rocha Moya to be out of danger. The driver who was with them was also hit by bullets.
Just four days earlier, in what was interpreted as “a clear message,” the body of a municipal police officer had been found near the State Congress building.
Local authorities indicated they will open an investigation focusing primarily on “the political factor” and the issue of “security,” which has kept Sinaloa in flames for almost a year and a half.
Expressing her solidarity with the legislators on social media, Representative Paola Gárate stated that the armed attack in the heart of Culiacán was not an isolated incident, but rather “the reality faced by thousands of families in Sinaloa, while the obvious is repeatedly denied.” Gárate hit the nail on the head in a message to her colleagues: “This has affected us all. It wasn’t far away, it wasn’t at night, it wasn’t a coincidence. To continue minimizing the violence or remaining silent is to be complicit in the normalization of fear.”
The leader of the Citizens’ Movement party, former mayor of Culiacán during the golden age of the Chapitos’ rise to power (2014-2016), when El Mayo Zambada, as was later revealed, enjoyed absolute official protection from all three levels of government, has been considered a possible gubernatorial candidate in the upcoming 2027 elections. This comes within a political process in which, for the first time, the Sinaloa Cartel, a key electoral force in the state, is fractured following the Chapitos’ betrayal of Mayo Zambada and his subsequent surrender to the United States government.
In recent days, Sergio Torres Félix has been embroiled in a fierce power struggle for control of the Union of Workers in the Service of the Culiacán City Council (STASAC), which he had led and from which he launched his career that led him to become a state representative, mayor of Culiacán, and—after leaving the PRI—state leader of the Citizens’ Movement.
As the STASAC leadership election approached, the union’s current general secretary, Julio Duarte Apán, announced his intention to run for reelection for the 2026-2029 term, in order to “protect what has been achieved and continue moving forward.” Another long-time STASAC member (for 22 years), Manuel Espinoza Ramos, also registered as a candidate. Sergio Torres Félix, on the other hand, publicly announced his support for a third candidate: Zayra Janeth Flores Manjarrez.
Surprisingly, Duarte Apán did not appear to register his slate. He revealed that he had decided to withdraw from the race “for health reasons.” In Culiacán, more than one person raised an eyebrow, because just days before he had declared his intention to “protect what has been achieved.”
More than one person raised their voice again when the second candidate, Manuel Espinoza Ramos, declared, just three days after announcing his candidacy, that he had made “the difficult decision” to withdraw “for personal reasons that required my full attention.”
The version circulating among Sinaloa’s political class is that both candidates were “visited” and threatened to clear the way for Torres Félix’s candidate. Journalist Juan Manuel Partida, president of the Sinaloa Journalists Association, accused him of being behind the death threats against the two candidates for general secretary. In a press conference held the day before the attack, the Movimiento Ciudadano (MC) leader dismissed the accusations as slander and reiterated his support for candidate Flores Manjarrez. According to Partida, the idea was to seize control of one of the state’s most important unions.
It was in this context that the attack occurred in the state, which, according to its governor, is experiencing calm and tranquility.
“It wasn’t far away, it wasn’t at night, it wasn’t by chance.” As Representative Gárate said, this has now affected them as well.
Source: eluniversal
