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In late July, Ismael El Mayo Zambada García, the alleged leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was kidnapped by men who were believed to be his associates and taken to the United States, where he was arrested, according to a letter signed by him and shared by his lawyer Frank Pérez. Since then, a power struggle between criminal groups in the State of Sinaloa was predicted. Nothing was certain, but there was still uncertainty.
Although various violent events related to this dispute had already occurred after the arrest of the criminal leader, it was not until Monday, September 9, that what many called a “fragmented Culiacanazo” occurred (the term refers to the episodes of chaos, panic and violence that hit the city after the two attempts to capture Ovidio Guzmán López, one of El Chapo Guzmán’s sons, in 2019 and 2023) or a “narcopandemic.”
What do they mean by “fragmented culiacanazo”? In 2019, the failed attempt to capture Ovidio Guzmán, who is currently also facing justice in the United States, led to a scene of shootings, roadblocks with cars stripped and subsequently burned, and panic among citizens, since all these events broke out on a Thursday, October 17 at 2:30 p.m. People ran to take shelter where they could, schools and businesses closed, and the streets emptied. Thousands of people were no longer able to return to their homes and were stranded in the streets, so on social media people with a lot of empathy and willing to help published the address and facade of their homes to welcome those homeless people who were nearby and had nowhere to take shelter.
Meanwhile, armed groups drove around the city in their trucks, robbed people of their cars, threatened them, pulled people off buses and shot them with total impunity. The scene, worthy of a Hollywood movie, continued until nightfall. The message was clear: Ovidio Guzmán had to be released by the authorities, otherwise the criminals – who are even defended by some misinformed people with expressions like “they are not bad” or “they care more about us than the government” – would not care about continuing to kill innocent people.
On that occasion, 51 inmates from the Aguaruto Prison took advantage of the chaos to riot and escape from prison.
A friend who experienced this event in a supermarket with her mother, where she had to sleep with hundreds of strangers, told me that she was unable to leave until the next day. When the shooting broke out, she ran with her mother and a dozen other people to take shelter in an office they found on their way. Among those who ran to take shelter there was a mother with two children no older than five years old, and despite having vomited from the panic she felt, she tried to sing them a song to distract them from the sound of the bullets.
The authorities were overwhelmed by a failed and ineffective operation in 2019, so they had to release Ovidio Guzmán. It was the President of the Republic himself, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who acknowledged that the decision was made to avoid a bloodbath. The first Culiacanazo left dead and wounded throughout the city, and, above all, a collective trauma in the people of Culiacan who witnessed the bloody shootings in broad daylight on the streets of their city.
And what was so feared: there was time, space and conditions for it to happen again. Then came the second Culiacanazo. The city was paralyzed by violence once again. This time it was on January 5, 2023, when the federal government tried again to arrest Ovidio Guzmán. This time it succeeded.
Unlike the first time, the operation began around 2:00 in the morning, when most people were asleep in their homes. When they woke up, citizens on social media learned that several avenues in Culiacán were blocked with burned cars, which had previously been stolen from dozens of unfortunate people who left their homes very early without realizing what was happening.
The city was once again paralyzed for a whole day. With the trauma of not being able to go out to carry out daily activities because they could become victims of a stray bullet, people locked themselves in again.
As I said at the beginning of this text, almost two years later, very early on Monday, September 9, clashes between armed civilians and soldiers were reported, as well as overflights by Armed Forces helicopters, abandoned armored vehicles, and the burning of some units in different areas of the city. Classes at all levels were suspended, as was public transportation. The shutters of businesses in almost the entire city were also closed. The clashes continued into the night.
The next day classes resumed, businesses opened and people went out to work, confident that this third Culiacanazo would be, like the previous ones, a one-day riot. Later, the population realized that this time it was different, the violence has continued every day since then. For that reason it has been said that it is a fragmented Culiacanzo, with many violent moments.
The constant fear of dying
Children have not been able to return to school since then. Although some days of the week classes were not officially suspended, most mothers have decided not to send their children to school because they live in constant fear of being caught in the middle of a shootout. They fear for their safety all the time.
It has gone very viral a photograph The photo was taken after a man was murdered in a supermarket parking lot. In the image you can see soldiers and a pregnant woman who is dressed as Spiderman covering her son’s eyes so that he doesn’t see the body of the murdered person lying on the ground, or the long weapons of the Mexican Army members.
This photograph reminds me of the story my friend told me. The two mothers, to the best of their ability, one with a song and the other covering her eyes, try to protect their children from the violent reality of the city. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, Inegi, three out of ten women who are mothers also play the role of head of household.
The forced confinement, also known as the “narco-pandemic,” is a challenge for the population of Sinaloa, but mainly for those mothers who have to go out to work to bring bread to their homes or not be fired from their jobs, and at the same time, take care of their children protected so that no bullet hits them.
The “narco world” involves women in different ways. Machismo is one of the practices associated with it. Therefore, it is common for a set of attitudes and behaviors to be carried out that discriminate and marginalize women because of their sex. This can be seen in the limited roles assigned to women, as the last link in the system.
According to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), women’s main jobs in the drug world are not those that bring in large profits. Instead, they are related to transporting drugs, a crime that is easy to prosecute. The organization points out that single mothers often end up transporting drugs in order to bring food to their children. In this world of violence, they also lose out.
Likewise, it can be observed in the social stereotype of “women of drug traffickers,” the objectification of their bodies and the way in which they are disappeared for being partners of men involved in drug trafficking or murdered in public spaces. The masculine corresponds to the dominant, while the feminine is the dominated.
Furthermore, the mothers of men involved in this world who become victims of forced disappearance must accept the indifference of society and the authorities to the pain of their missing, tortured or murdered children.
Although the drug war is detrimental to society in general, it is essential to understand how each population, including women, experiences the reality of drug trafficking in order to address the underlying problem, without only thinking about imposing sanctions or punishments.
The violence generated by drug trafficking has been admired like a scene from a movie; the authorities increasingly trust that it will become commonplace and irrelevant, and the victims continue to fight to prevent it from being normalized.
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