As Mexico’s military went on the offensive, the body count skyrocketed to new heights and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, disappeared or killed. Mexico’s “war on drugs” began in late 2006 when the president at the time, Felipe Calderón, ordered thousands of troops on to the streets in response to an explosion of horrific violence in his native state of Michoacán.Ĭalderón hoped to smash the drug cartels with his heavily militarized onslaught but the approach was counterproductive and exacted a catastrophic human toll. “It’s a demonstration that his hugs, not bullets strategy isn’t a strategy that means impunity.” Guzmán was also a domestic “trophy” Amlo could use to claim that his “ abrazos no balazos” (hugs not bullets) security policy – which puts fighting the social roots of crime above violent confrontation – was working. Security expert Óscar Balderas said the capture would allow Amlo to signal to the US that Mexico was capable of dealing effective blows to organized crime. “Right out of the Amlo playbook,” one former senior US law enforcement official in Mexico told Vice. Some analysts believe Guzmán’s arrest was intended as a gesture to Biden, whom Amlo is scheduled to meet in Mexico City on Monday to discuss issues such as migration and security, including Mexico’s role in the US fentanyl crisis. “Why?” one frightened child can be heard asking a parent. The targeted planes included Aeroméxico’s 8.24am flight to Mexico City, whose bewildered passengers were filmed crouching for cover between its dark blue seats as the assault unfolded around them. “Two airforce planes … had to make emergency landings,” after being hit by “a considerable number” of cartel bullets, Sandoval admitted in a breathtaking official account of the war-like violence. Part of their plan appears to have been commandeering Culiacán’s airport and preventing military aircraft from landing there to fly their high-profile prisoner out.Īs Arandas arrived at check-in, gangsters opened fire on both military and civilian planes – some still in flight – as well as airport buildings, Mexico’s defense secretary, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, told reporters on Friday. Mexican cartel targets airport and blockades roads after El Chapo’s son captured – video “We will give you more information when we can.” “We are asking citizens not to go out,” Sinaloa’s security secretary, Cristóbal Castañeda, tweeted as the mayhem spread. 50 caliber machine guns desperate to avoid the arrest of Guzmán, an alleged cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine trafficker for whose arrest the US had offered a $5m reward.Ī Black Hawk gunship pummeled one target with a 3,000-shots-per-minute, six-barrel machine gun similar to those US troops used in Vietnam.Įventually, Guzmán was arrested – but worse was still to come, as cartel gunslingers marauded across Sinaloa state, torching vehicles, blocking roads and trying to seize control of Culiacán’s airport to stop authorities extracting their leader. Seven soldiers were killed in the ensuing gun battle between troops and gangsters with. Thirty-five miles north of the capital, near a rural fishing community called Jesús María, security forces claimed they had spotted a convoy of around 25 cartel vehicles in which their target – AKA “El Ratón” (The Mouse) – was believed to be traveling. Photograph: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/REX/ShutterstockĬuliacán’s day of drama began at about 4.40am on Thursday, according to the local newspaper Noroeste. View image in fullscreen Rosa Icela Rodríguez during a press conference in Mexico City after the recapture of Ovidio Guzmán.
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