Mexico City,. Culiacan The attack took place at dawn: near the city of Culiacán, units of the Mexican Navy and National Guard arrested one of the sons of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Guzmán junior, nicknamed “El Ratón” (the mouse), is one of the leading figures in the Sinaloa cartel. Ovidio, along with his brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, leads “Los Chapitos” (“Little Chapos”), one of the most powerful factions of Mexico’s largest crime syndicate.
What followed the arrest was an unprecedented exchange of blows: after the arrest, gang members and security forces fought brutal battles for hours in the north-west of the country. Criminals blocked buses and trucks on the streets of Culiacán, the state capital of Sinaloa, and set the vehicles on fire, television broadcasts showed on Thursday. Numerous shots were heard. The authorities counted 19 so-called “narcobloqueos”, narco-blockades.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said armed men had attacked the airport and a barracks, among other things, and shot at passenger planes and military machines. The aim of the gang members was to prevent the prisoner from being transported to a high-security prison. In view of the clashes, Governor Rubén Rocha Moya called on people in Sinaloa to stay in their homes. Schools, public buildings and the Culiacan airport have been closed. The US Embassy in Mexico advised against travel to Sinaloa. The government ordered a day off. hospitals closed.
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According to the governor, at least one member of the National Guard was killed and about 30 others injured, mostly military, in the fighting. According to US information, the Chapitos produce up to 2,200 kilos of the synthetic drug fentanyl every month and smuggle most of it into the United States. They are said to operate about eleven laboratories for the production of artificial drugs. Guzmán is said to have ordered the killings of informants, rivals and a singer who refused to sing at his wedding.
He had already been arrested once in 2019, but was later released by order of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
(Photo: AP)
He was arrested once before in 2019 but later released by order of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to stop heavy fighting between criminals and security forces.
Ovidio Guzmán has now been taken to Mexico City and turned over to the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office. The US State Department put a $5 million bounty on his head. Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has now said, however, that Guzmán will at least not be immediately extradited to the United States. A Washington court charged him with drug smuggling in 2018.
Next week, Mexican President López Obrador, US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet in Mexico City for the North America Summit. One of the topics at the meeting in the Mexican capital will also be the common security policy.
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Guzman’s father “El Chapo” was one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world. The former head of the Sinaloa cartel smuggled tons of cocaine and heroin into the US and made billions from it. He is also said to have been responsible for up to 3,000 murders. He twice broke out of maximum security prisons in Mexico. After his last arrest, he was extradited to the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Shootings in Mexico after drug lord Guzman arrested
For Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the out of control violence is becoming a problem. He reacts to the situation with indifference, conspiracy theories and blaming his predecessors, criticizing the opposition and large parts of the media alike.
Mexico’s first left-wing president was only elected because he promised to end the violence. His predecessors had tried to fight the cartels with the use of the armed forces, but in vain.
López Obrador, on the other hand, came up with a completely different approach: “Abrazos no balazos”, i.e. “hugs instead of bullets” – a concept that relied on prevention instead of repression and above all on offers to young people so that they did not join the cartels. Scholarship offers and penalties for minor offenses were part of the approach.
But this tactic has failed, as is now becoming clear. Larger and larger parts of Mexico fall into the hands of the cartels. Employers’ organization Coparmex warns: “The situation is unsustainable and the lack of an effective strategy against the insecurity, coupled with indifference at all levels of government, is aggravating the situation every day.”
The year had already started bleakly. On New Year’s Day, heavily armed assailants attacked a prison and helped the head of a crime cartel and 24 other inmates to escape. 17 people, seven inmates and ten guards were killed in the outbreak.
Criminals set numerous vehicles on fire.
(Photo: dpa)
What investigators found in the detention center surprised even hardened minds. Imprisoned bosses of the Caborca cartel lived in veritable VIP cells, in which there were numerous luxury items and safes filled with cash.
Despite extreme crime rates and the increasingly evident weakness of the current government, Mexico will remain an important investment destination for German companies in Latin America for the time being.
However, the uncertainty is costing the world’s second largest economy, after Brazil, the equivalent of one percent of gross domestic product (GDP), complains Coarmex President José Medina Mora. “That is a high price, which is reflected in the fact that fewer investments are coming and no jobs are being created,” complains Medina Mora.
Mexico’s GDP was $1.3 trillion last year, around a third of Germany’s GDP. The country is positioning itself as a winner of globalization. Because of Covid and the trade conflict between the United States and China, as well as the proximity to the largest market in the world, international companies are increasingly being drawn from Asia to Mexico.
With agency material
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