Civil society organizations in the Mexican city of Culiacán, capital of Sinaloa state, held a march for social peace that brought tens of thousands to the streets Sept. 7, with ongoing public vigils over the following days. Held under the slogan "Ya basta, queremos paz" (Enough already, we want peace), the mobilization was called to mark one year since an outbreak of violence in the city as rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel vied for supremacy.
The struggle pitted Los Chapitos [10], the sons of imprisoned kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, against Los Mayos, followers of Ismael "El Mayo [11]" Zambada. It was sparked by the arrest of El Mayo by US agents immediately after a plane carrying him touched down in El Paso, Texas, on July 25, 2024. El Mayo claimed he had been abducted by Los Chapitos and forced onto the Texas-bound plane.
The initial explosion of violence in the second week of that September, some 30 were killed, causing residents to observe a self-imposed curfew. But the bloodletting has continued since then, with bodies often left on streets or other public places as a warning. The death toll in Sinaloa over the past year is said to exceed 1,800, with local activists counting another 2,800 disappeared. (Animal Politico [12], Mexico News Daily [13], MND [14], NYT [15], NYT [16], CBS [17], News Nation [18], Reuters [19], BBC News [20])
El Mayo pleaded guilty to trafficking and conspiracy charges in a US federal court in Brooklyn this Aug. 25 to avoid the death penalty. Attorney General Pam Bondi flew to New York for the plea, and boasted [21] that Zambada "will die in a US federal prison." Fellow septuagenarian kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero [10] was apparently also included in the deal, and will likewise avoid execution. Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of El Chapo, arrested on the same flight as El Mayo last year, has plead not guilty in federal court in Chicago. (AP [22], NewsHour [23], Latin Times [24])
The outbreak of violence in Sinaloa last year also saw bloody escalations elsewhere around Mexico. The remains of Mayor Alejandro Arcos of Chilpancingo, capital of Guerrero state, were found in a pickup truck on Oct. 6, 2024, with his severed head on the roof. Four mayoral candidates were killed in the state of Guanajuato that June. The assassinations caused several mayors around the country to request protection from Mexican federal authorities. (AP [25])
See our last report on Mexico's human rights crisis [26].
