600 Dead in Ongoing Cartel War in Mexico's Sinaloa State

culiacán - The cartel war in the Mexican state of Sinaloa has claimed at least 600 lives in the past 100 days, with no end in sight.

The ongoing deadly conflict between the two main factions of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico has led to the deaths of a minimum of 600 people in just 100 days. The state Minister of Public Security in Sinaloa has resigned amidst the bloody battle for control of the criminal organization. General Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, who stepped down, is the second state minister to leave the administration of Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, who took office in 2021. Mérida held the position for a year and four months, succeeding his predecessor Cristóbal Castañeda.

Quickly, the governor appointed his third Security Minister. Óscar Rentería Schazarino is now tasked with trying to curb the violence in Sinaloa, a challenging endeavor given the ongoing clashes between the factions led by two sons of former cartel boss Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán Loera and a son of Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada García.

Both notorious Mexican drug traffickers are currently imprisoned in the United States. The 67-year-old El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison plus thirty years in 2019, and is serving his sentence in a high-security prison in Colorado. His faction is now under the control of his two sons Ivan Archivaldo (41) and Jesús-Alfredo (38), who operate under the name Los Chapitos.

El Mayo, aged 76, has been awaiting his trial in a New York cell since July 25. On that day, he was kidnapped to the US by Joaquín Guzmán López, El Chapo's son, and handed over to American authorities under false pretenses. La Maziya, as El Mayo's faction is known, is led by his son Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla, also called El Vicentillo. El Vicentillo's testimony against El Chapo in his US trial is believed to be the reason behind El Mayo's extradition to the US, laying the groundwork for the armed conflict within the Sinaloa Cartel.

The new Security chief has his work cut out. On the same day his predecessor resigned last Saturday, eleven people were murdered. President Claudia Sheinbaum previously sent her Security Minister, Omar Harfuch, to Sinaloa to 'better coordinate the strategy in Sinaloa for some time.'

The 'Mexican drug czar' was dispatched to Sinaloa after Mexican authorities seized one and a half tons of fentanyl in early December, the largest haul in Mexican history. The shipment, valued at $400 million, was traced back to the drug gang of Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, also known as El Chapo Isidro, for whose arrest the FBI has offered a $5 million reward. His group reportedly joined La Mayiza faction in early September.

For President Sheinbaum, it was an opportunity to show her critics in Mexico and the incoming American president that the fight against drug trafficking is her top priority. Former President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that he would designate Mexican drug cartels as 'terrorist organizations' on his first day back in office.

Despite Mexico's strict gun control laws, around 200,000 firearms are smuggled from the US into the country annually. During the six-year term of former President Andrés López Obrador, a total of 28,159 firearms were intercepted. This information was obtained via a Mexican FOIA request.

The war between La Mayiza and Los Chapitos has inflicted an economic loss of approximately €900 million on Sinaloa. Local entrepreneurs met with the Minister of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, and senators in Mexico City, seeking economic aid to cope with the crisis of business closures and rising unemployment due to the ongoing violence.

The residents of Sinaloa are fed up with the incessant violence and are calling for it to stop. Mexican boxer and former world champion Julio Chávez urged Los Chapitos and La Mayiza to end the bloodshed, stating, 'Stop the massacres.' The Catholic Church in Mexico also issued a plea for peace and justice just two days before Christmas, saying, 'Basta de violencia!' ('End the violence, enough.').