Mexico City, Sep 20 (UNI) A recent operation by the United States to capture the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel has sparked the violence that the state of Sinaloa has been experiencing in the last few days, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday.
“What I can tell you is that there was an agreement, and due to this agreement — details of which we still do not know, including what it consisted of and under what conditions it was made — it has produced a confrontation for us in Sinaloa, which is happening now, and which I expect will be settled soon, as we are taking action,” Lopez Obrador told a press conference broadcast by his administration.
Last week, Sinaloa authorities canceled all festive events for Mexico’s Independence Day due to deadly clashes between cartels and law enforcement. Local media reported that the fighting has erupted between two factions of the local cartel, with Los Chapitos led by the children of drug lord El Chapo, and El Mayo led by the recently detained Ismael Zambada.
A significant military presence, including around 2,200 personnel, has been deployed in Sinaloa to maintain order amid the violent clashes that killed more than 30 people.
Joaquin El Chapo Guzman’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was arrested in July and has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges, while the co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Zambada, faces multiple charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence for drug offenses, and his other son, Ovidio, was extradited to the US in September 2023, with two of his brothers still at large.
