The Sinaloa Cartel, believed to be one of the most powerful
criminal organizations in the world, is no longer at war with itself, but it is
struggling to re-organize after internal strife and continued pressure from the
Mexican government.
"El Vic" in custody |
The result is that the security situation in rural Sinaloa
has fallen apart. The circumstances are particularly grave in the municipality
of Concordia, in the Sierra Madre Occidental, with mines closing and hundreds
of people fleeing their villages due to threats from drug traffickers. Many of
these villages are now completely vacant ghost towns.
This is happening as the Sinaloa Cartel struggles to recover
from a breakdown that began while its leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was on
the run, and that accelerated with his detention on January, 2016. By the time
of his extradition to the United States, one year later, the leadership vacuum
was complete.
The latest blow to the Cartel is the early-morning arrest on
October 26 of Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán ("El Vic") in the upscale
Santa Fe neighborhood in Mexico City. El Vic is believed to be the financial
man for El Chapo’s two sons, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán,
who are now the de facto leaders of
the cartel. El Vic is also allegedly the brother-in-law of Jesús Alfredo
Guzmán.
This is occurring after an apparent consolidation of power
by the Guzmáns. They have made peace with El Chapo’s elderly partner, the
semi-retired Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, and have successfully pushed
aside El Chapo’s godson, Dámaso López Núñez (“Licenciado”), who has been
captured and extradited. Dámaso López Núñez’s own son, Dámaso López Serrano,
has since surrendered to US authorities.
But that hasn’t helped people in the villages within the
municipality of Concordia. Situated about 600 meters up the western slopes Sierra
Madre Occidental, these communities are close to the port and tourist town of Mazatlán,
and are situated near a popular highway that traverses the Sierra from the
highland city of Durango to the Pacific coast.
In the last three months, armed gunmen have displaced an
estimated 755 families, moving out the civilian population to secure lands for
drug cultivation. Towns such as Chirimoyo,
Santa Lucia, La Capilla, El Coco, La Guayanera – among others – are completely
empty due to fear of the armed groups. The conflict is now spreading to the
municipalities of El Rosario and San Ignacio.
Shockingly, the 16th century church in the town
of Pánuco, itself along the old highway between Mazatlán and Durango, is now
abandoned. This is not far from to the popular tourist destination of Copala.
The gang responsible for this, called "La
Valvula", is clearly operating without any fear of repercussions from the Sinaloa
Cartel, which has traditionally controlled organized crime – and the peace – in
this part of rural Mexico. In fact, La Valvula has also reportedly been active
in Badiraguato, north east of the state capital of Culiacán, displacing families
in the home town of El Chapo himself.
La Valvula is different in that, unlike the Sinaloa Cartel –
which employed locals and curried favor with rural authorities – this criminal
gang not only sows and traffics drugs, but also steals machinery and extorts
money from ranchers, farmers, sawmills, and mining companies.
The situation is so bad that four of Sinaloa’s 27 mines have
closed due to the security situation. All of them are in the Concordia
municipality. The mines were producing gold, silver, copper and zinc, but the
owners have been reluctant to go public with their concerns due to fear of
reprisals. Nonetheless, Manuel Félix Sicairos, a representative of Mexico’s
Association of Mining Engineers and Geologists of Mexico, says that complaints
have been made to the State Attorney General's Office.
Most of the displaced people have settled in the port of
Mazatlán and the nearby town of Villa Union, where they have been receiving some
community support on the form of food and shelter, with the children attending
local schools.
(TE Wilson is a Canadian journalist and the author the Detective Sánchez series of crime novels.)
(TE Wilson is a Canadian journalist and the author the Detective Sánchez series of crime novels.)
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