Responding to the high levels of violence in Sinaloa with “firepower” would trigger a “war” in the northern state, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday.
Her remark came as the “Los Mayos” and “Los Chapitos” factions of the Sinaloa Cartel engage in a fierce battle in Culiacán and surrounding areas as the former group seeks to avenge the alleged kidnapping of cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, who was arrested in the United States in late July.
El Mayo claims he was abducted by Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, and forced onto a plane that delivered him into the hands of U.S. law enforcement authorities.
There have been dozens of cartel killings in Sinaloa since Zambada’s arrest, including more than 30 between Sept. 9 and 16.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that authorities are working to restore peace in Sinaloa, but asserted that fighting fire with fire is not the right strategy.
“Going in with firepower would cause a war, as occurred in the past and which didn’t get us anywhere,” she said.
Sheinbaum, who will take office on Oct. 1, was specifically referring to the 2006-12 presidency of Felipe Calderón, who launched a militarized “war” on drug cartels shortly after he was sworn in.
“Calderón said: ‘There is going to be collateral damage,'” the president-elect said.
“That’s why [the current government] is acting to protect citizens.”
During his administration, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has directed security forces, including the army, to avoid violent confrontations with criminals where possible. He attracted widespread criticism in 2022 when he said that his government looks after criminals by avoiding armed confrontations.
“Before it was kill them in the heat of the moment and they finished off the wounded,” López Obrador said in May 2022, referring to killings by the armed forces during Calderón’s presidency.
By avoiding confrontations, he continued, “we look after the members of the armed forces … but we also look after the members of the gangs — they’re humans [too].”
Sheinbaum said she wants “peace and tranquility” in Sinaloa, and “obviously to combat crime,” but not by “creating more confrontation that causes more deaths.”
She said she wasn’t advocating “waiting for the [opposing] groups to stop fighting,” but rather is in favor of “protecting the population” of Sinaloa.
The Mexican Army’s top commander in Sinaloa said Monday that the re-establishment of order in the state “doesn’t depend on us” and will only come when the rival Sinaloa Cartel factions stop fighting each other.
Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya ordered 370 police and military agents to patrol school zones in Culiacán, Elota, Cosalá and San Ignacio, where they will remain throughout school hours.
Sheinbaum told reporters that her government’s security strategy will focus on attending to the root causes of violence, strengthening the National Guard and making use of intelligence and other investigative capacities to prevent and solve crimes.
“When we come into government, a series of new laws, reforms, will be presented that will allow us to have a national system of intelligence and investigation,” she said.
“But when there is confrontation, one has to be cautious, not cause greater violence and act responsibly,” Sheinbaum stressed.
The López Obrador administration has used a so-called “hugs, not bullets” security strategy in which addressing the root causes of crime via social and welfare programs is favored over confronting criminals with force.
Homicides reached record high-levels during the current six-year term of government, but numbers have declined slightly in recent years.
AMLO: Protecting citizens comes first
At his morning press conference on Tuesday, President López Obrador was asked about Commander Francisco Jesús Leana Ojeda’s statement that the restoration of order in Sinaloa depends on “Los Mayos” and “Los Chapitos” rather than the army.
“I would just say that we’re attentive to what’s happening in Sinaloa and are basically seeking two things: First, to protect the population, the protection of citizens,” he said.
“The people of Sinaloa should have confidence that we’re there and we’ll continue to be there for the time that is necessary to protect them, to look after them,” López Obrador said.
“And the second thing, which is also part of that first task, is to avoid confrontation between the [opposing] groups, to stop them fighting and lives being lost. That’s what we’re doing basically,” he said.
With reports from Milenio, SPR Informa and AFP
I’m certain the US would send 5-10k troops to take care of things. The Mexican troops could focus on helping protect and/or evacuate the citizens, while the better trained, heavier armed, and endlessly financed US military could handle the “heavy lifting”. It would improve US – Mexican relations and Mexico could free itself from the scourge of the cartels. No country should be held hostage by any group of its citizens. Unless, of course, the leadership of such a country benefits from the dealings and continued success of those citizen groups. I deplor war and violence as a whole, but with the president and president-elect using that terminology, why not suggest a solution to their concern. There is help available to Mexico to seriously reduce the activities of the Narcos. Or they can continue to ignore it and continue to let the cartels murder innocent civilians, politicians, and reporters, shutter businesses, negatively impact near shoring opportunities, and hurt tourism. Cartels are to Mexico, like guns/school shootings are to the US. There are solutions, you just have to WANT the change.
Yes, sending in a few heavily armed, well trained US troops worked so well in Vietnam, Afganistan, and on and on. And of course there was no collateral damage to either of those places, and no civilian casualties.
“Stop making sense!” (Not a criticism.)
Yes, because US intervention in other countries is always such a roaring success.
This would be a crazy movie but in the real world it is difficult to differentiate between civilians and cartels when they don’t have guns. So Vietnam and Afghanistan end up being apt examples sadly but I think the most important piece is Sheinbaum’s quote: “When we come into government, a series of new laws, reforms, will be presented that will allow us to have a national system of intelligence and investigation,” she said. This seems more of a real world solution. Similar to how the USA handled its own mafia issue back in the day, they didn’t go out and bomb their own cities and send in the military with heavy weaponry.
Former attorney general under Trump met with Amlo and said the U.S. military would join forces with Mexicos and put an end to this stuff. Amlo refused. Good look with her strategy. Sounds like his. And look at the results.
And you believe that?
No cajones. If El Salvador can do it why can’t Mexico.
Tell us more. Better yet, get this paper to do a story on it.
There are significant structural differences between cartels in El Salvador and Mexico. In Mexico, the cartels have a long established hierarchal structure that allows for transitions of power. That was not the case in El Salvador-removing the leader of a cartel and putting all suspected members in prison without judicial review is an extreme measure. The success of the process in El Salvador will take several years to play out. A benevolent dictator may be the best form of government, but there are few examples of that in human history as rarely have dictators remained benevolent and the transition of power has almost always resulted in destabilization. How the transition plays out in El Salvador remains to be seen but the people in El Salvador have certainly benefitted in the short term with the very heavy imprisonment of anyone even reported to have an association with the cartels and the use of bitcoin to stabilize the currency. I don’t see that either of those policies would do well in Mexico. It is a very different country. The judicial reforms in Mexico should be given a chance as the present system has not worked.
The civil war in Sinaloa is exactly a war over transition of power. Moreno should look to El Salvador and how they went to 0 murders. This hands off is not the way to go.
More hugs for the cartels.
This is a tough problem; I know “hugs not bullets” is 100% supported by the mafias.
I can understand Sheinbaum’s thinking on the matter, but waiting for social problems to be ameliorated will not reduce cartel influence in Mexico. She needs a new long term strategy to deal with the problem. Meanwhile the cartels take over more and more of the country.
Maybe they could convince the cartel to use beepers.
Better intelligence is the better answer, not reactive violence. The President Elect is moving in the right direction at the right pace for now
Sounds like she has a concept of a plan. There can be no protection of the population when the violence is random and widespread. As to letting the cartels figure it out, it’s not as if the “winner” will abandon their business model of extortion, trafficking and terrorizing citizen opposition. Mexican (definitely not US) appropriately applied police/military intervention would work except, as already seen in the past, the corruption at the highest levels predicts failure. No solutions that I can see.
One of the provisions of the judicial reform as I understand it is that in cases involving cartels, the judge will be anonymous. If that is the case, that could help with the complaints of complicit and corrupt judges. It is an effort at a policy.
MORENA has the support of the cartels, therefore MORENA supports the cartels except when public pressure is too high to ignore.
Every politician or candidate in this country either accepts the cartels or is dead (as are anyone reporting on them). In MORENA’s case there was a paper trail.