NewsLatin AmericaThe arrest of Ovidio Guzman leaves 29 dead, 10 of them military

The arrest of Ovidio Guzman leaves 29 dead, 10 of them military

The President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, during his morning conference this Friday.Rogelio Morales Ponce (Dark Room)

The arrest this Thursday of Ovidio Guzman, leader of Los Chapitos, one of the factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, has left at least 29 dead, ten of them soldiers and 19 alleged members of the criminal group. These are the figures given this Friday by the Secretary of National Defense, Luis Crescencio Sandoval, during the morning press conference of the president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. A little more than a day after the fray, the president has indicated that “there are no longer blockades by armed groups in the streets. The governor has told me that since yesterday they are removing the burned-out cars from the streets”.

Sandoval has given more figures of the battle. The head of the Army, also responsible for the National Guard, has explained that there are 35 soldiers injured by firearms. Authorities have also detained 21 alleged members of Los Chapitos. In addition, “four 50-caliber rifles, six 50-caliber machine guns, 26 long weapons and two short weapons” have been seized. The military also seized 13 vehicles and disabled 40 trucks, 26 of them armored, according to data from the senior official.

It was a day of horror yesterday in Culiacan and other cities in Sinaloa. According to Sandoval, National Guard patrols detected a convoy of suspicious vehicles at dawn in a town 45 kilometers from the state capital, Jesus Maria. “The National Guard tried to persuade these people to get out of the vehicles for a search, but they refused, attacked them and the criminals fled. The military personnel in the area were then alerted to implement the contingency plan and activate the security procedure”, he said.

Thus began a day of shootings, which moved from Jesus Maria to the center of Culiacan, the roads in and out of the city and the airport area. Lopez Obrador has insisted that he acted “responsibly so that there were no innocent victims.” The president has hinted that the authorities waited to locate Ovidio Guzman far from the center of Culiacan, to avoid the fiasco of three years ago. In October 2019, the Army arrested the criminal leader at his house, in the center of the city, but the reaction of his henchmen forced the agents to release him.

“It has had the support of the State Government, the municipal and state authorities. All of this allowed things not to be more difficult, dramatic, even when there were clashes between crime and the authorities, with corporations from the Army, the National Guard and criminal groups”, said Lopez Obrador.

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