|
|
|
Gunbattles
rattle
Mexican
city
after
troops
find
Chapo’s
son
By
ANDRÉS
VILLARREAL
and
MARÍA
VERZA
apnews.com
CULIACAN,
Mexico -
An
intense
gunfight
with
heavy
weapons
and
burning
vehicles
blocking
roads
paralyzed
the
capital
of
Mexico’s
Sinaloa
state
Thursday
after
security
forces
located
one of
Joaquín
“El
Chapo”
Guzmán’s
sons who
is
wanted
in the
U.S. on
drug
trafficking
charges.
Mexican
security
secretary
Alfonso
Durazo
said 30
members
of the
National
Guard
and army
were
patrolling
in
Culiacan
when
they
were
fired on
from a
house.
They
repelled
the
attack
and
inside
the
house
found
Ovidio
Guzmán
López.
The
house
was then
surrounded
by
heavily
armed
gunmen
who had
“a
greater
force”
and
authorities
decided
to
suspend
the
operation,
Durazo
said. He
did not
say if
Ovidio
Guzmán
had been
arrested
or went
free.
“With
the goal
of
safeguarding
the
well-being
and
tranquility
of
Culiacan
society,
officials
in the
security
cabinet
decided
to
suspend
the
actions,”
said
Durazo.
José
Luis
González
Meza, a
lawyer
for “El
Chapo’s”
family,
told The
Associated
Press
that
Guzmán’s
family
has said
“Ovidio
is alive
and
free”
but that
he had
no more
details
about
what had
happened.
Ovidio
was not
one of
the
jailed
Mexican
drug
lord’s
best-known
sons -
Iván
Archivaldo
Guzmán
and
Jesús
Alfredo
Guzmán
are
known as
“los
Chapitos,”
or “the
little
Chapos,”
and are
believed
to
currently
run
their
father’s
Sinaloa
Cartel
together
with
Ismael
“El
Mayo”
Zambada.
But
Ovidio
Guzmán
was
indicted
in 2018
by a
grand
jury in
Washington,
along
with a
fourth
brother,
for the
alleged
trafficking
of
cocaine,
methamphetamine
and
marijuana.
Following
Thursday’s
localization
of
Ovidio
Guzmán,
Culiacan
exploded
in
violence
with
armed
civilians
in
trucks
roaring
through
the
city’s
center
shooting
what
appeared
to be
.50-caliber
sniper
rifles
and
machine
guns.
Videos
published
on
social
media
showed a
scene
resembling
a war
zone,
with
gunmen,
some
wearing
black
ski
masks
over
their
faces,
riding
in the
back of
trucks
firing
mounted
machine
guns as
vehicles
burned.
People
could be
seen
running
for
cover as
machinegun
fire
rattled
around
them.
Drivers
drove in
reverse
frantically
to get
away
from the
clashes.
“Nothing
is
working,”
said
Ricardo
González,
a worker
in the
state’s
congress
who shut
himself
up in
his
house
after
picking
up his
15-year-old
son from
school.
“There
is a
psychosis.
No one
knows
what is
going on
but
everyone
is
afraid
and they
have
told us
to not
come in
to work
tomorrow.”
Sinaloa
public
safety
director
Cristóbal
Castañeda
told
Milenio
television
that
there
were
people
wounded
but did
not
provide
a
casualty
figure.
He did
not rule
out that
there
were
deaths.
Castañeda
said
gunmen
blocked
streets
with
burning
vehicles,
a common
tactic
to make
it
difficult
for
security
forces
to
maneuver.
Simultaneously,
some 20
to 30
prisoners
escaped
though
some
were
quickly
recaptured,
he said.
State
officials
asked
residents
to avoid
going
out in
parts of
city.
Sinaloa’s
soccer
club
Dorados
announced
that it
had
cancelled
its game
Thursday
due to
security
concerns.
Gov.
Quirino
Ordaz
confirmed
that
school
classes
had been
suspended
but that
businesses
would
open on
Friday.
González,
however,
doubted
this.
“There
is no
public
transportation,
no
taxis,
people
outside
the city
remain
blocked
outside
and
tomorrow
will be
the
same,”
he said,
adding
that
Culiacan
had not
seen
such a
scene
for
almost a
decade,
when the
Sinaloa
Cartel
was
experiencing
an
internal
war.
Sinaloa
is home
to the
cartel
by the
same
name,
which
was led
by “El
Chapo”
Guzmán.
Guzmán
was
sentenced
to life
in
prison
in the
United
States
in July.
He has
many
children.
After
Guzmán’s
third
arrest
in 2016,
an
internal
battle
for
succession
began
playing
out. The
battle
was
resolved
with the
arrest
of
Damaso
López
Nunez
and his
son
Dámaso
López
Serrano,
who led
a rival
faction.
|
|
|
|
|
|