Mexican city erupts in violence, residents ordered to stay indoors after drug cartel leader’s arrest | 24CA News

Canada’s authorities is urging Canadians in Mexico’s Sinaloa state to restrict their actions and shelter in place amid an outbreak of violence within the nation’s northwest following the arrest of a infamous drug cartel’s chief.

Mexican authorities on Thursday confirmed the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, a 32-year-old senior member of the Sinaloa Cartel and a son of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

His arrest unleashed a violent backlash by gang gunmen on Thursday that shut the airport within the metropolis of Culiacan as authorities instructed residents to remain indoors. 

Videos shared on social media appeared to point out heavy preventing in a single day in Culiacan, the primary metropolis within the northern state of Sinaloa, with the sky lit up by helicopter gunfire.

The metropolis’s airport was the goal of violence, with Mexican airline Aeromexico saying considered one of its planes had been hit by gunfire forward of a scheduled flight to Mexico City. No one was damage, the airline stated, however the airport was closed till Thursday night time.

On Thursday afternoon, Global Affairs Canada warned Canadians in Sinaloa to take additional care, particularly within the cities of Culiacán, Mazatlán, Los Mochis and Guasave.

It suggested Canadians to keep away from demonstrations and gatherings and to not try to cross highway blockades. It additionally really useful contacting their airline or tour operator to vary journey preparations if essential, and to watch native media and observe the directions of native authorities.

The Culiacán and Mazatlán airports had been closed and all flights had been suspended at Los Mochis airport till additional discover, Global Affairs stated.

On Thursday afternoon, Aeromexico introduced it was additionally suspending operations in Obregón, a six-hour drive northwest of Culiacan.

Ovidio, who has grow to be a key determine within the cartel because the arrest of his father, was briefly detained in 2019 however was rapidly launched to finish violent retribution in Culiacan from his gang. The incident was an embarrassing setback for the federal government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Residents instructed to remain indoors

On Thursday morning, safety forces had been making an attempt to comprise a violent response to the arrest within the Culiacan space by Guzman’s associates.

Burned automobiles had been scattered on the streets and closely armed legislation enforcement patrolled in pickup vehicles.

“We continue to work on controlling the situation,” stated Cristobal Castaneda, Sinaloa’s public safety chief.

Local authorities urged individuals to remain indoors and stated faculties and administrative places of work had been closed because of the violence. Street blockades had additionally been erected.

“We ask the citizens of Culiacan not to leave home due to the blockades that have occurred in different parts of the city,” Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez wrote on Twitter.

Arrest days earlier than Trudeau, Biden go to

Ovidio’s newest seize comes earlier than a North American leaders’ summit in Mexico City subsequent week, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden will attend, and at which safety points are on the agenda.

One of the Mexican officers stated Guzman’s arrest was prone to show a welcome addition to U.S.-Mexico cooperation on safety forward of Biden’s go to. The United States had provided a $5 million US reward for info resulting in the arrest or conviction of Ovidio.

It will not be but clear whether or not Ovidio will probably be extradited to the United States like his father, who’s serving a life sentence at Colorado’s Supermax, probably the most safe U.S. federal jail.

Joaquin Guzman, 65, was convicted in New York in 2019 of trafficking billions of {dollars} of medication to the United States and conspiring to homicide enemies.

Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia Consulting which analyzes Mexican organized crime, stated that latest strain from the Biden administration to focus on the Sinaloa Cartel had possible motivated Mexico to go after Guzman.

But he warned that whereas Ovidio’s seize was prone to weaken that cartel, it may assist their principal rival, the notoriously violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Crackdown on fentanyl

A surge in overdose deaths within the United States, fuelled by the artificial opioid fentanyl, has led to elevated strain on Mexico to fight the organizations — such because the Sinaloa Cartel — accountable for producing and delivery the drug.

The cartel is without doubt one of the world’s strongest narcotics trafficking organizations.

For Tomas Guevara, a safety skilled on the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Guzman’s arrest helps save face for Mexican legislation enforcement following the humiliation of getting to let El Chapo’s son go in 2019.

“The detention of Ovidio is finally the culmination of something that was planned three years ago,” he stated.

It may also herald a change in strategy by the federal government, Guevara added, after criticism from many safety specialists that Lopez Obrador was smooth on the cartels, an accusation he denies.

The president argues the confrontational techniques of his predecessors had been unsuccessful and solely brought on extra bloodshed, saying he would as a substitute pursue a method of “hugs not bullets.”