Decapitated bodies hung under bridge after 20 people slaughtered amid drug war sparked by El Chapo's sons
A bloody war for control between two factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel has turned the city of Culiacan into an epicenter of cartel violence since the conflict exploded between the two groups, Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, exploded last year.
Dead bodies appear scattered across Culiacan on a daily basis, homes are riddled with bullets, businesses shutter, and schools regularly close during waves of violence. Masked young men on motorcycles watch over the main avenues of the city.
Los Chapitos, led by the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin ' El Chapo ' Guzman, have reportedly become so desperate to win the internal civil war that it has allied with long-time rival Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
On Monday, Sinaloa state prosecutors said that four decapitated bodies were found dangling from the freeway bridge that leads out of the city. Their heads were found nearby in a plastic bag.
On the same highway, officials said they found 16 more male victims with gunshot wounds, packed into a white van, one of whom was also decapitated.
Authorities said the bodies were left with a note, apparently from one of the cartel factions.
While little of the note's contents was coherent, the author of the note chillingly wrote: 'WELCOME TO THE NEW SINALOA.'
Turned in: Mexico's top drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman escorted as he arrives at Long Island MacArthur airport in New York, January 19, 2017
Feliciano Castro, a Sinaloa government spokesperson, condemned the violent killings on Monday and said authorities need to examine their strategy for tackling organized crime with the 'magnitude' of the violence seen.
Castro said: 'Military and police forces are working together to reestablish total peace in Sinaloa.'
However, most in the western Mexico state say authorities have lost control of the violence levels.
A bloody power struggle erupted in September last year between two rival factions, pushing the city to a standstill while the fighting took over.
The war for territorial control was triggered by the dramatic kidnapping of the leader of one of the groups by a son of notorious capo Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman who then delivered him to U.S. authorities via a private plane.
Since then, intense fighting between the heavily armed factions has become the new norm for civilians in Culiacan, a city which for years avoided the worst of Mexico's violence in large part due to the Sinaloa Cartel maintaining so much control.
The New York Times reported that the factional war has forced El Chapo's sons to ally with its adversary, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Los Chapitos have reportedly agreed to hand over swathes of its territory in exchange for money and weapons, which it is burning through in its fight against La Mayiza.
One high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel said Los Chapitos were in desperate need of funds.
He said: 'Los Chapitos were gasping for air, they couldn't take the pressure anymore.
'Imagine how many millions you burn through in a war every day: the fighters, the weapons, the vehicles. The pressure mounted little by little.'
The risky trade could severely hamper the Sinaloa Cartel's ability to traffic drugs, as control over territory is crucial in order to secure routes from production to distribution sites.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on non-state armed groups at the Brookings Institution, told the American newspaper: 'It's like if the eastern coast of the U.S. seceded during the Cold War and reached out to the Soviet Union.
'This has global implications for how the conflict will unfold and how criminal markets will reorganise.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Alleged leader of Mexican kidnapping ring released after nearly 20 years in prison
The alleged leader of an infamous Mexican kidnapping ring walked out of a maximum security prison after nearly 20 years Friday, hours after a judge said there wasn't sufficient evidence to support the charges holding him. Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez on Friday rattled off a list of appeals, injunctions and complaints filed over the years of Israel Vallarta's imprisonment in a case that never arrived at a verdict. Vallarta had been charged with organized crime and kidnapping, but a judge tossed those out Thursday. The Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond as to whether it would appeal. Vallarta was arrested in 2005, along with his girlfriend French citizen Florence Cassez. Cassez was eventually convicted and sentenced to 60 years on charges of aiding a kidnapping ring, in a case that soured relations between Paris and Mexico City. She acknowledged living with Vallarta at a ranch where kidnap victims were being held, but professed her innocence, saying she was unaware of their presence. One victim identified her as a kidnapper, but by voice only rather than by sight. A day after Cassez was arrested, police had forced her to take part in a staged raid on the ranch purportedly to rescue hostages and arrest suspects. It was covered by the media and broadcast on television. In January 2013 the Supreme Court overturned Cassez's conviction due to procedural and rights violations. She was released and became a cause celebre in France.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
‘Classic tinpot dictator': Trump exports his assault on democracy to Brazil
Over the past six months, Donald Trump has been accused of rapidly dragging the largest democracy in the Americas towards authoritarianism. Now, the US president seems bent on undermining the region's second largest democracy too. Since early July, Trump has launched an extraordinary attack on Brazil's institutions, slapping 50% tariffs on imports from the South American country and sanctions on a supreme court judge – partly in retribution for what he called the political persecution of his ally, Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly masterminding a failed coup. 'Rarely since the end of the cold war has the United States interfered so deeply with a Latin American country,' the Economist declared last week. 'I feel for the Brazilians,' said Steven Levitsky, the Harvard University political scientist who co-wrote How Democracies Die, a bestselling book about democratic erosion. 'This is a very authoritarian political force that's doing enormous damage to my country's democratic institutions and rights – and I wish it would stop at that. It's painful to see the [US] government do damage to other countries' democratic institutions as well.' The US has an ignominious track record of interfering in Latin American affairs, through CIA-backed coups and military interventions. But Levitsky said he had never seen trade policy weaponized in such a way: 'Brazilians have worked now for generations to build the strongest, most democratic system they've ever had … and this sort of reckless, casual assault on democratic institutions pains me.' Trump's effort to help Bolsonaro dodge justice over his alleged 2022 coup, by pressuring Brazil's government and supreme court, has thrilled the ex-president's supporters. They see Trump as Bolsonaro's best chance of avoiding jail when the supreme court announces its verdict in the coming weeks. But Trump's meddling has infuriated millions of Brazilians from across the political spectrum who are appalled at what they call an intolerable foreign ploy to subvert their democracy, 40 years after it was restored after two decades of dictatorship. 'In the old days they'd send in the marines. Now they impose tariffs,' said Rubens Ricupero, a former finance minister and ambassador to Washington, who predicted that Trump's behaviour would provoke a wave of anti-US nationalism. Marcelo Rubens Paiva, an author and pro-democracy campaigner whose father was murdered by Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship, called Trump's 'utterly unspeakable' interference the fruit of 'a man who feels he is Napoleon and wants the entire world to kneel down before him'. Observers are split on what is driving Trump's assault on Brazil's institutions and democratically elected government, which the White House this week declared a threat to 'the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States'. Some suspect he hopes to expand Latin America's pro-Trump rightwing axis – currently led by Argentina's Javier Milei and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele – by reviving Bolsonaro's waning political career and, perhaps, returning the far-right populist to power in next year's presidential election. Others see Trump's pro-Bolsonaro pressure campaign as a smokescreen for his true objectives: furthering US economic interests and, in particular, those of tech giants desperate to avoid regulation in the world's fifth-largest online market. Levitsky saw a simpler explanation. Trump's offensive was the product of a president who acted like a 'classic 20th-century tinpot dictator', such as the Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo or Nicaragua's Anastasio Somoza. 'Trump approaches governance in exactly the same way. The treasury was for them. Trade policy was for them. Foreign policy was for them. The army was their personal security. That's how Trump looks at governance. He uses policy instruments for his own personal and political ends,' Levitsky said. 'There's no economic strategy here. Very clearly there's no foreign policy strategy here. But Bolsonaro's family has gotten into Trump's inner circle and convinced him that Bolsonaro's plight is similar to his plight in 2020 [after he lost the election to Joe Biden]. 'Trump believes – falsely – that he was subjected to a witch-hunt and he's been convinced by Bolsonaro's sons that Bolsonaro, like him, is also subject to a witch-hunt. And he's using US foreign policy – tragically, pathetically – to pursue those personal whims,' Levitsky said. Experts doubt Trump will succeed. Bolsonaro, already banned from seeking election until 2030, is expected to receive a hefty sentence when the coup trial concludes. Bolsonaro denies the charges but has admitted considering 'alternative ways' to stop the winner of Brazil's 2022 election, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking office. Paiva believed Trump wanted Bolsonaro to secure the same kind of impunity he enjoyed after trying to overturn the 2020 election result. But the ruse appeared to be backfiring. Early signs suggest President Lula has been energized by the tug-of-war with Trump while the Bolsonaro family, who many blame for convincing Trump to target Brazil's economy and institutions, have suffered a public backlash. In a recent editorial, the conservative Estado de São Paulo newspaper declared: 'Bolsonaro's name has already been inscribed in the pantheon of the greatest traitors this nation has ever seen.' 'I think Bolsonaro has buried his political career,' Paiva said.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
‘Classic tinpot dictator': Trump exports his assault on democracy to Brazil
Over the past six months, Donald Trump has been accused of rapidly dragging the largest democracy in the Americas towards authoritarianism. Now, the US president seems bent on undermining the region's second largest democracy too. Since early July, Trump has launched an extraordinary attack on Brazil's institutions, slapping 50% tariffs on imports from the South American country and sanctions on a supreme court judge – partly in retribution for what he called the political persecution of his ally, Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly masterminding a failed coup. 'Rarely since the end of the cold war has the United States interfered so deeply with a Latin American country,' the Economist declared last week. 'I feel for the Brazilians,' said Steven Levitsky, the Harvard University political scientist who co-wrote How Democracies Die, a bestselling book about democratic erosion. 'This is a very authoritarian political force that's doing enormous damage to my country's democratic institutions and rights – and I wish it would stop at that. It's painful to see the [US] government do damage to other countries' democratic institutions as well.' The US has an ignominious track record of interfering in Latin American affairs, through CIA-backed coups and military interventions. But Levitsky said he had never seen trade policy weaponized in such a way: 'Brazilians have worked now for generations to build the strongest, most democratic system they've ever had … and this sort of reckless, casual assault on democratic institutions pains me.' Trump's effort to help Bolsonaro dodge justice over his alleged 2022 coup, by pressuring Brazil's government and supreme court, has thrilled the ex-president's supporters. They see Trump as Bolsonaro's best chance of avoiding jail when the supreme court announces its verdict in the coming weeks. But Trump's meddling has infuriated millions of Brazilians from across the political spectrum who are appalled at what they call an intolerable foreign ploy to subvert their democracy, 40 years after it was restored after two decades of dictatorship. 'In the old days they'd send in the marines. Now they impose tariffs,' said Rubens Ricupero, a former finance minister and ambassador to Washington, who predicted that Trump's behaviour would provoke a wave of anti-US nationalism. Marcelo Rubens Paiva, an author and pro-democracy campaigner whose father was murdered by Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship, called Trump's 'utterly unspeakable' interference the fruit of 'a man who feels he is Napoleon and wants the entire world to kneel down before him'. Observers are split on what is driving Trump's assault on Brazil's institutions and democratically elected government, which the White House this week declared a threat to 'the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States'. Some suspect he hopes to expand Latin America's pro-Trump rightwing axis – currently led by Argentina's Javier Milei and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele – by reviving Bolsonaro's waning political career and, perhaps, returning the far-right populist to power in next year's presidential election. Others see Trump's pro-Bolsonaro pressure campaign as a smokescreen for his true objectives: furthering US economic interests and, in particular, those of tech giants desperate to avoid regulation in the world's fifth-largest online market. Levitsky saw a simpler explanation. Trump's offensive was the product of a president who acted like a 'classic 20th-century tinpot dictator', such as the Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo or Nicaragua's Anastasio Somoza. 'Trump approaches governance in exactly the same way. The treasury was for them. Trade policy was for them. Foreign policy was for them. The army was their personal security. That's how Trump looks at governance. He uses policy instruments for his own personal and political ends,' Levitsky said. 'There's no economic strategy here. Very clearly there's no foreign policy strategy here. But Bolsonaro's family has gotten into Trump's inner circle and convinced him that Bolsonaro's plight is similar to his plight in 2020 [after he lost the election to Joe Biden]. 'Trump believes – falsely – that he was subjected to a witch-hunt and he's been convinced by Bolsonaro's sons that Bolsonaro, like him, is also subject to a witch-hunt. And he's using US foreign policy – tragically, pathetically – to pursue those personal whims,' Levitsky said. Experts doubt Trump will succeed. Bolsonaro, already banned from seeking election until 2030, is expected to receive a hefty sentence when the coup trial concludes. Bolsonaro denies the charges but has admitted considering 'alternative ways' to stop the winner of Brazil's 2022 election, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking office. Paiva believed Trump wanted Bolsonaro to secure the same kind of impunity he enjoyed after trying to overturn the 2020 election result. But the ruse appeared to be backfiring. Early signs suggest President Lula has been energized by the tug-of-war with Trump while the Bolsonaro family, who many blame for convincing Trump to target Brazil's economy and institutions, have suffered a public backlash. In a recent editorial, the conservative Estado de São Paulo newspaper declared: 'Bolsonaro's name has already been inscribed in the pantheon of the greatest traitors this nation has ever seen.' 'I think Bolsonaro has buried his political career,' Paiva said.
