Members of the Mexican Army and National Guard guard the main entrance of the El Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, January 6. Ten soldiers and 19 suspected criminals were killed in an operation to arrest the son of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s government said on Friday, in a dramatic shootout that struck terror at an airport. NICHOLAS ASFORI/AFP/Getty Images
An explosion of gang violence following the arrest of accused drug lord Ovidio Guzman Lopez in Mexico threatens to overshadow next week’s Three Friends summit, putting the host country’s security crisis at the center of a meeting that is supposed to focus on migration and trade.
The arrest on Thursday of Mr. Guzman, son of the infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman Loera, sparked gun battles between gangsters and government security forces that left at least 29 dead in Sinaloa state, a popular destination for Canadian vacationers and expats.
The move was a reversal for the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had previously argued that military action against the country’s drug cartels was not working. In 2019, Mr. Lopez Obrador, widely known in Mexico as “AMLO” after his initials, supported the release of the younger Mr. Guzman after a previous arrest in an attempt to stop retaliation by cartel supporters. The elder Mr Guzman is serving a life sentence in a US prison after being arrested in 2016.
Many in Mexico saw Mr López Obrador’s apparent change of heart as an attempt to show US President Joe Biden that Mexico was ready to take action against criminal gangs. If so, it may have backfired, causing the bloodshed that Mexico’s president was trying to avoid.
At his daily news conference on Friday, Mr Lopez Obrador denied any connection between the arrest and the upcoming summit, which will be the latest in a series of periodic meetings between the leaders of Mexico, Canada and the United States. He said US authorities had no role in the police operation.
“As for interpretations, there are many. We do not share them. We operate autonomously,” he said.
Mr. López Obrador confirmed that the United States had requested Mr. Guzman’s extradition so he could face drug-trafficking charges. But the Mexican president said his own country’s courts would decide whether there was enough evidence to proceed. Mexican authorities said they had been monitoring Mr. Guzman for six months and that he was wanted for fueling a fentanyl crisis in northern Mexico.
Some observers were not convinced that the arrest had anything to do with the summit.
“This was done to show that Biden Mexico is serious about capturing people who are on the FBI’s most wanted list,” said Andres Rosenthal Guttmann, a former senior Mexican diplomat and foreign affairs official. “To some extent it was propaganda for next week’s meeting.”
U.S. intelligence has played a role in previous cartel-related arrests, helping Mexican authorities track down criminal leaders.
Meetings between Mr Lopez Obrador, Mr Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are scheduled to take place early next week at the National Palace in Mexico City. At the top of Mr Biden’s agenda is securing Mexican aid to stem the flow of asylum seekers from Latin America and the Caribbean trying to reach the US
Meanwhile, the Mexican government is seeking to use the summit to strengthen North American trade ties as a counterweight to China.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Trudeau, Anne-Clara Vaillancourt, said the prime minister’s office was “closely monitoring the situation” in Sinaloa, but did not say whether or how the issue would be addressed at the summit.
After Mr. Guzman’s arrest in Culiacan, the state capital, his supporters opened fire at the local airport, set up roadblocks around the city and set fire to vehicles in several towns. The Mexican army retaliated with helicopter gunships and machine guns, killing 19 gang members and losing 10 of its soldiers.
At least one group of Canadian tourists was stranded in a hotel in Mazatlán, The Canadian Press reported, after someone set fire to the buses that were supposed to take them to the airport.
Authorities closed airports in Culiacan, Mazatlán and Los Mochis on Thursday after gunfire struck an Aeromexico plane as it prepared to take off from Culiacan. No one was injured on the plane, and Culiacan and Mazatlan airports were reopened on Friday.
“The city asked us to stay,” said Josefina Grabich of Vancouver, who is vacationing in Mazatlan with a friend. They are staying at an Airbnb and plan to spend another two weeks in the area.
“We feel good,” she said, adding that they were monitoring the news in case the fight came closer.
“Officials advised us to stay home for our safety,” said Paul Garon, who spends the winter in Mazatlan with his wife.
Edmontonians have seen “a lot of the National Guard in the last few days,” he said, adding that “Mexican officials are making great strides to protect us.”
Both Ms Grabic and Mr Garon said shops and restaurants had closed on Thursday, but things had started to return to normal by Friday.
Charlotte McLeod, spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada said Canadians in Sinaloa should “limit movements and shelter in place if possible” and “not attempt to cross roadblocks.”
“The Government of Canada advises all Canadians to avoid any non-essential travel to various regions of Mexico,” she wrote in an email.
WestJet spokesman Dennis Kenney said the airline has canceled flights to and from the Mazatlán airport. Sunwing said its flights to Mazatlan were canceled and that return flights were “affected by additional delays.” Air Canada and Air Transat said their operations were not affected.
Fernando Belaunzaran Mendez, a former Mexican lawmaker and critic of Mr. López Obrador, said it was not yet clear whether this week’s arrest was a one-off or the start of a sweeping change in the president’s policies.
When he was elected in 2018, Mr. López Obrador promised to end Mexico’s policy of using the military to fight cartels, widely blamed for exacerbating the situation by fueling relentless violence. At the time, the president promised “hugs, not bullets” in the fight against crime.
“López Obrador may have thought that if we don’t fight against them, it can restore peace. What happened yesterday is a break with that position. But we still have to see what will happen,” Mr Belaunzaran said.
Regardless of the Three Amigos connection, he said, the decision clearly helped the U.S. achieve one of its goals in its relationship with Mexico.
“They get what they want,” he said. “Which seems to fight crime.”
Add Comment