At least 30 people were killed in two weeks of fighting in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel continued to clash, authorities said.
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said two military personnel were among the dead in violence that began on September 9, despite the deployment of more than 2,000 security personnel. The fighting has centered on Culiacan, the state capital, where daily life has been badly disrupted by fear of shootings and the visibility of armed conflict in the streets.
The violence has followed the fallout from a major cartel split that became more acute after Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, arrived near El Paso in July with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Zambada later said in a letter circulated by his lawyer that he had been abducted by the younger Guzmán and taken to the United States against his will. AP said the result appears to be a power struggle between the remaining sons of El Chapo, known as the Chapitos, and people loyal to Zambada.
AP’s report described how organized crime in Mexico has increasingly adopted battlefield tactics that include roadside bombs, trenches, homemade armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones. In Sinaloa, that has translated into a security crisis that has overwhelmed ordinary civic life. Schools were empty, businesses were shut and transportation nearly disappeared because residents feared being caught in a gunbattle.
Sandoval said 2,200 members of the armed forces and the National Guard had been sent to reinforce security, with the government not ruling out more troops. The military’s regional commander said the fighting would stop only when the antagonistic groups decided to stop confronting each other, a statement that illustrated the limits of the state’s response.
Local authorities also moved to reduce public exposure. Gov. Rubén Rocha suspended schools and canceled Mexican Independence Day festivities over the weekend, though classes resumed Tuesday. Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the armed forces were protecting the population and preventing clashes between criminal groups. His broader approach, often described as “hugs not bullets,” has long rejected the kind of open confrontation with cartels favored by some critics.
The clash in Sinaloa is another reminder that Mexico’s cartel violence is not only about criminal economies but also about control, symbolism and public authority. With one faction seeking to dominate the other after a major leadership disruption, the consequences have spread well beyond the underworld and into schools, roads and neighborhoods across the state.
