Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch returned to the battle-scarred state of Sinaloa for the second time this month after one of his federal agents was slain Wednesday in Culiacán, in an attack attributed to organized crime.
President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters during her Thursday morning press conference that García Harfuch will remain in the northwestern state for an undefined period of time.
Sheinbaum also said she will meet with the security minister and Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha in the state capital Mazatlán on Sunday.
Early Wednesday, Security Ministry (SSPC) investigator Halexy Guadalupe Velderrain Con was ambushed and killed in Culiacán.
While the SSPC did not provide additional details at the time, at least one other agent was reported wounded, according to the newspaper El País, which added that witnesses told local media they had seen two men on a motorcycle approach the SSPC vehicle and open fire.
García Harfuch flew to Sinaloa later that day, and Sheinbaum said he would personally take charge of security operations in the state. This contrasts with his Dec. 5 visit to Culiacán, which state Security Minister Gerardo Mérida Sánchez described as a routine fact-finding mission.
On Thursday, García Harfuch met with the Sinaloa governor. After the meeting, Rocha confirmed that the agent’s death was the result of a “targeted attack.”
No end in sight to internecine drug war
Sinaloa — and especially Culiacán — has been the scene of near-daily violence since rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel took up weapons against each other in early September.
Since then, more than 600 people have been murdered and over 900 people have been kidnapped or “disappeared,” according to the magazine Proceso.
The state’s economy has been paralyzed as businesses have closed down or dramatically shortened hours of operation, prompting Governor Rocha to start distributing cash to mitigate the impact of the drug war.
State business leaders say the violence has cost the state economy at least 18 billion pesos.
Even as Rocha claims the violence is being blown out of proportion, the reality of the situation indicates otherwise, according to Proceso.
Last Saturday, a mid-day shootout in which more than 300 rounds were fired off occurred near a baseball park in Culiacán where Little League games were taking place. For five minutes, players and fans lay on the field waiting for the gunfire to stop.
The next morning, another five-minute-long firefight took place in a residential area of the state capital. One property was shot up as was a recently inaugurated fire station, damaging several fire trucks.
Some online companies have refused to make deliveries in the state due to concerns about the safety of highway travel. There have been shootouts along the Mazatlán-Culiacán highway — where bodies have also been regularly dumped along the road, Proceso reports.
Concern about the public’s psychological health has prompted the Autonomous University of Sinaloa to offer virtual counseling to residents who might be suffering from PTSD, anxiety disorders and shock.
Even the army is not safe from the violence. On Wednesday, the same day the SSPC agent was killed, soldiers were ambushed in the village of Elota.
Though state authorities insisted no soldiers were wounded in the attack, some publications reported that one soldier was killed and at least four others were wounded.
The attack resulted in a rapid reaction from the armed forces which summoned the National Guard. Witnesses reported seeing military helicopters transport several wounded soldiers out of the area, according to the online news site Infobae.
With reports from El País, La Jornada, El Financiero, Proceso, Infobae, Los Noticieristas and Expansión Política
