The Sinaloa cartel takes the streets

• Drug trafficking.The Sinaloa cartel, a multinational drug company
• 'El Chapito'.The Mexican authorities confirm the release of the son of' El Chapo 'Guzmán
• Organized crime: the narco after 'El Chapo' Guzmán

The arrest and subsequent release of Ovid Guzman, alias 'El Chapito', again showed that there are Mexican states where the central government does not command, but organized crime. Sinaloa is one of them, as the cartel that bears his name showed Thursday, which the Mexican National Guard could not even face. In the face of his first major security crisis, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has preferred to yield and release the boss, since, as he assured in a press conference, "you cannot extinguish the fire with the fire". This Friday, while members of the Sinaloa cartel celebrated the release of their leader, the president's usual critics attacked him for his warmth when it comes to fighting the violent.

The official explanations about what happened have not cleared all the questions, and above all they leave the security forces and the Government of López Obrador in a very bad place. According to the official version offered by the Secretary of Public Security, Alfonso Durazo, after 3 pm, a military convoy - which allegedly carried out a routine patrol in the Tres Ríos area - has been attacked from a house. The 30 soldiers have responded to the attack and took control of the building, finding four people inside, including Ovid Guzman, son of 'El Chapo'. Minutes later, as Alfonso Durazo said, "several organized crime groups surrounded the house with a force greater than that of the patrol."

In an unprecedented display of strength, the Sinaloa cartel has taken over the state capital. For more than eight hours, shootings and explosions have taken place in the streets of Culiacán, forcing the civilian population to take refuge in their homes. Images and videos shared on social networks give a good account of the impunity with which the criminals acted. They have paraded with high caliber weapons and have cut access to the capital to prevent the military from taking 'El Chapito'. They have even allowed themselves the luxury of directly attacking the main military headquarters in the city and assaulting the Aguaruto prison to free 51 prisoners.

While all this was happening, the Government has decreed an informative silence that has fed the rumors and has kept the local population and the media in complete disarray. It was not until late at night when Secretary Durazo has confirmed that "in order to safeguard the superior good of the integrity of the culiacanante society, the security cabinet officials agreed to suspend such actions." Without admitting questions from the press, no one at this point was sure if Ovid Guzman was imprisoned or free, since they have even disseminated two photographs of him where he was allegedly detained.

From Oaxaca, López Obrador (who has not suspended his official agenda to address this crisis) has confirmed that El Chapito was arrested and subsequently released by his direct order. "I endorsed that decision because the situation became very difficult ... We don't want dead, we don't want war. The previous strategy turned the country into a cemetery, I've said it a thousand times. Nothing by force, all for the reason and the right, "explained the president.

Apart from the creation of the National Guard, López Obrador's commitment to combat organized crime has shone through his absence in these first months of government. In one of his last tours of the north of the country, the president has once again displayed that paternalistic discourse that characterizes him so much, addressing the drug traffickers directly: "Let them reconsider, but above all, think about their families, think about their 'mamacitas' ".

The violent day lived in Culiacán has left at least eight dead and 16 wounded, to which we must add eight military vehicles and a helicopter with bullet impacts, and above all the feeling that in Sinaloa organized crime lives in an environment of Total impunity The release of Ovid Guzman, wanted in the US for drug trafficking and heir to the criminal empire that his father raised, raises a disturbing doubt: from now on, will the Government always yield to the blackmail of criminals?

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Mexico
• Drug trafficking

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