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world news Diamars 27 Juli 2021

A Mexican state suffers bloody fallout of cartel rivalry

(AP) — When they heard gun- sits between the drug’s production
fire in the valley, residents locked and its consumers.
their doors and cowered inside
their homes. Some 200 armed After the chemical precursors enter
men had just looted a gas sta- the Pacific ports, they are finished
tion, according to a witness, and into fentanyl pills in labs in Nayarit,
the shooting would continue for Jalisco and Sinaloa to the west of Za-
hours as an equal number from catecas, said Oscar Santiago Quintos,
an opposing group confronted head of the analysis and intelligence
them. department of Mexico’s Attorney
General’s Office. To the east sits San
The authorities didn’t arrive until the Luis Potosi, a logistics hub filled with
next day. When they did, they found shipping companies that can move
18 bodies in San Juan Capistrano, a the tiny pills north. Highways run-
small community in Valparaíso, Za- ning north to key border cities pass
catecas. The north-central Mexican through Zacatecas, providing a di-
state holds strategic importance for rect route for northbound drugs and
drugs being shipped to the United southbound guns.
States. Mexico’s two strongest cartels
— Sinaloa and Jalisco New Genera- “The battle for Zacatecas is part of
tion — are locked in a battle for con- the larger war to dominate the fen-
trol. tanyl market, which is the largest that were double that. A detective
source of money for the cartels in the If someone doesn’t stop, they open who apparently was investigating the
One month after the June 24 kill- United States,” said Mike Vigil, for- fire. Earlier this month, a doctor shootout and was pulled out of Val-
ings, there have been no arrests. The mer head of international operations was killed in neighboring Jerez for paraíso for his safety was later killed.
military has sent reinforcements, but for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Ad- not stopping. Two paramedics carry-
killings continue across Zacatecas: a ministration. In 2020, some 93,000 ing a woman in an ambulance from Similar violence is occurring in other
doctor here, a police officer there, a people died of fentanyl overdoses in neighboring Jalisco state to a hospital states like Michoacán and Guerre-
family hacked to pieces, eight killed at the U.S., a record high. were killed a few days before passing ro, where residents caught between
a party, two girls shot along with their through Valparaíso. competing gangs suffer extortion, ab-
parents. Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra ductions and killings.
Madre, Valparaíso sits on one of those Last month, a priest was killed in
In a country that has suffered more critical highways. crossfire on the highway. Residents For years, attention focused on vio-
than a decade of violence at the hands said he had been helping them get lence along Mexico’s northern border
of powerful drug cartels, the situa- For the past month, a shot up pick-up electricity back after an armed group in cities like Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez
tion in Zacatecas, as well as violence- truck has rested here. It’s a reminder cut the power to some ranches. and Nuevo Laredo. Zacatecas had it
plagued states like Michoacán and that residents remain in the line of then too as cartels battled for control,
Tamaulipas, shows that neither the fire even as the army and National “One town is controlled by Sinaloa, but it was overshadowed. Now Za-
head-on drug war launched by for- Guard patrol the area. the next by Jalisco, the next Sinaloa catecans, including in the state capital
mer President Felipe Calderón in again,” said a community leader, who of the same name, have awoken on
2006, nor the softer “hugs not bul- The larger currents of the interna- like more than a dozen people inter- several occasions to corpses dangling
lets” approach of current President tional drug trade engulfing these viewed requested anonymity to avoid from overpasses.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador have Zacatecan communities may not be repercussions. He said just sharing
managed to break Mexico’s cycle of clear to their residents, but the impact territory with one group makes resi- Murders occur daily in Fresnillo,
violence. is inescapable. dents complicit in the eyes of their a city that mixes the local offices of
enemies. major mining companies with farm-
Zacatecas’ 746 murders in the first When the shootouts rumble across ers working the bean fields. With 239
half of the year, compared to 1,065 the plains dotted with ranches, A rumor circulated that the cartels murders per 100,000 residents, Fres-
for all of 2020, give it the highest farmers often can’t go out to feed were forcing youth snatched from nillo has the highest perception of in-
murder rate per 100,000 residents in their livestock. Goods to stock store the communities to work for them. security in Mexico: more than 96% of
the country through June, according shelves and medical care frequently its population lives in fear, according
to the Mexican government. don’t arrive for fear of cartel road- Plenty of families left, some for other to the National Institute of Statistics
blocks. Gunmen stop residents and Mexican cities to wait for the situa- and Geography.
What makes Zacatecas worth fight- demand their cell phones to look tion to calm, others to the United
ing for is its location. It borders eight for information that could tie them States where some 1 ½ million Za- Mexico’s federal government de-
other states. Among other things, the to the other cartel. They sometimes catecans — the same number as in fends its policy of targeting the root
cartels are battling to control the most beat people or tie them up regardless Mexico — reside. causes of violence — poverty, cor-
lucrative drug: fentanyl. Zacatecas to instill fear. ruption, impunity — with social pro-
Others just stayed inside. “There grams while deploying the National
were 15 days that we didn’t go out for Guard and soldiers. There are more
anything,” said Claudina Betancourt, than 100,000 guardsmen deployed in
a nurse born in San Juan Capistrano. the Mexico, plus the military, yet the
She continues working here, but re- violence continues apace.
cently moved her belongings to Fres-
nillo where her daughter and mother Arturo Nahle, Zacatecas’ former at-
live in case she has to quickly leave torney general and current state su-
one day for good. preme court president, said those
policies could be right, but will take
years to bear fruit. “The strategies
There’s no cellular coverage and just that the Mexican government has
two phone booths, isolation that adds implemented over the last 15 years
to the uncertainty. have not worked,” he said.

Days after the June 24 shootout, au- López Obrador’s party just won the
thorities found two more corpses, governorship in Zacatecas, but it re-
raising the death count to 20. Val- mains to be seen if coordination with
paraíso’s mayor could not confirm or federal authorities will improve.
deny figures given by some residents