The war returned to Culiacan this Thursday after the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, son of El Chapo and leader of Los Chapitos, one of the factions of the Sinaloa cartel. Alleged members of the criminal group have wreaked havoc in the state capital and other cities with shootings and blockades, and confiscated drivers’ vehicles and mobile phones. Major Sinaloa airports were closed and some highways were closed, trucks and trailers criss-crossed and were ablaze.
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The testimonies collected by EL PAÍS paint a panorama of terror in the capital, where packs of armed criminals on motorbikes or on foot played cat and mouse with the authorities and involved gunfire. Roberto, a painter who left his home just before 10 a.m., explains that the criminals confiscated his car at gunpoint: “I don’t know what a theater of war will be like, but I think it’s the same,” he says .
These are well-known scenes in Culiacan, which experienced a similar episode three years and three months ago, also motivated by the capture of Ovidio Guzmán. Then the advance of Los Chapitos forced the retreat of the army that Guzmán had been holding at his home in the center of town. His henchmen caused chaos with roadblocks, shootings, and burned vehicles, and the military eventually freed the criminal leader.
National Guard agents outside the Attorney General’s office in Mexico City, where Guzmán Hector Guerrero was transferred
On this occasion, the authorities achieved their objective and flew Guzmán to the capital from Los Chapitos, despite the tantrum. The consequence of this victory is a frightened city. In an appearance before the media, Defense Minister Luis Crescencio Sandoval explained that the criminals blocked up to 19 avenues, boulevards and highways, only in Culiacan, near the airport, military airfield number 10, but also in the north and south exits.
Although the operation to capture Guzmán took place at dawn, the confrontations and blockades in a town an hour from downtown Jesús María began to be felt around 6:15 a.m. in the urban area. Juan, a fictitious name, arrived at the airport fifteen minutes early to fly to Mexico City. He had cleared security and was waiting in the boarding room when he suddenly heard gunshots.
“There were about four or five eruptions heard. So I said, ‘Well, what will it be?’ I went on Twitter to see if anyone was reporting what had happened and suddenly I saw they were already reporting blockages and burnt cars. And I said ‘uf, no, that’s cannon’. Then the plane came and we didn’t know whether we were going or not,” he explains. Airline employees got them on board, but the plane sat on the runway for a while without taking off. “People were getting semi-paranoid,” the man adds. Finally they took off.
His plane was one of the last to leave Culiacan that Thursday morning, which later ceased operations. Videos have surfaced on social media of workers and travelers taking refuge in the face of shootings in the terminal. They also transcended videos of shootings on the same stretches of the airfield. In one of the most shocking scenes of the day, dozens of passengers on a plane about to take off threw themselves to the ground to avoid impact. The leadership hit at least one aircraft from Aeroméxico and another from the armed forces.
Two images of the chaotic scenes on Aeroméxico Flight 165, which was taking off for Mexico City when it was shot at David Tellez (Portal)
On the streets the situation was very strange. A journalist who lives near the Malecón Nuevo, right in the center, woke up and when he looked at his phone he found several messages telling him not to go out. “They spoke of a confrontation in Jesús María, but I didn’t know what was going on,” he says. Your name will not appear on these lines for security reasons. “In the course of the morning we received reports from colleagues whose vehicles were stolen, and in some cases their mobile phones as well. There is uncertainty at the moment. Now, after the arrest, news of looting or dispossession is starting to come in,” he recounts.
Several colleagues have suffered what he says, reporters trying to do their jobs who ran into groups of criminals. For example, it was said that the criminals took his car and that he later fled to a hotel. Later, criminals arrived at the hotel to demand the guests’ car keys. Another shared a similar story: criminals who stole his car. He had no choice but to continue working on foot.
Other citizens have suffered similar dispossessions. Roberto, the painter, whose real name does not appear in this note either, was one of the many victims of armed robberies on the city streets. The man left his home after 9:40 a.m. He had heard something on the news but didn’t think it would affect him. He was wrong.
“I walked near a boulevard called Agricultores, near the university veterinary school. It’s a boulevard that spans many neighborhoods and gives us access to downtown and is near the exit to Mazatlan,” he says. “All of a sudden I see there were seven or eight guys in the middle, all with guns in hand. When I arrive, someone says to me: “What’s up, old man, where are you going? I tell him: ‘I’m going to work.’ And he says to me: “Get out and leave the keys on”.
The man offered no resistance. He got out of the car and stared at the criminals, not knowing what to do. A few meters away, neighbors observed what was happening. “The guy gets in my car, it seems like he’s nervous, he couldn’t start it but then he could. Another one that was outside walked up to the two people who were watching and said what are you looking at? so he yelled. And he shot twice in the air.”
A soldier stands in front of the remains of a burned-out vehicle on the highway in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Thursday.
Roberto ran to the spectators, who gave him protection. From the house he saw how the boys who had taken his car crossed another in the middle of the avenue and set it on fire. “From the house you could see people walking by getting things from a nearby supermarket, but that wasn’t the problem anymore, it was already pure robbery,” he digs. The man has returned home, hidden in the back of a pickup truck. In the afternoon some neighbors offered to take him away.
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