In Sinaloa, more than 190 people have died, 224 are missing, and around 200 families have been displaced, according to records from the State Public Security Council. This local nonprofit group has been responsible for monitoring the violent crimes committed in the region. In response to this situation, the Federal Government has deployed approximately 3,300 soldiers and members of the National Guard in Sinaloa, most of them stationed in Culiacán. Additionally, the Army has confiscated the weapons of the local police due to suspicions of complicity with the Sinaloa Cartel.
In this context, Falko Ernst, a security analyst based in Mexico City, notes that the armed confrontation last Monday could indicate a more robust intervention by the Mexican Army in the internal disputes of the cartels to prevent a resurgence of violence at the national level. This event has been described as "the bloodiest" in a decade by the American newspaper The New York Times.
During the shootout between soldiers and hitmen that occurred on the night of October 21 and the early morning of October 22, Edwin Antonio Rubio López, alias 'El Max' or 'El Oso', was captured. He is the leader of a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel and is accused of being directly involved in the recent violence in the region. Rubio López, 33 years old, is part of the faction led by Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, whose detention triggered a wave of crimes in northwest Mexico in the fight against the rival group 'Los Chapitos'.
The confrontations between 'La Mayiza' and 'Los Chapitos' have transformed Culiacán into a 'war zone' since the arrests of 'El Mayo' and Joaquín Guzmán López. The rise in violence in Sinaloa, particularly the recent clash between soldiers and hitmen that resulted in the deaths of 19 people in Culiacán, could lead Claudia Sheinbaum's government to consider a harsher approach against the drug trafficking cartels. Despite the outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador's policy of "hugs, not bullets", Sheinbaum, who recently took office, may be forced to rethink her strategy in light of the increasing violence in Sinaloa. The governor has stated: "There will be no war against the narcos; war implies permission to kill."
