“Ten soldiers (…) unfortunately lost their lives in the line of duty,” Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval told the press, adding that there were also “19 deaths from lawbreakers.” , quoted the AFP news agency.
After the arrest of Guzmán, 32 years old and claimed by the United States, the Sinaloa cartel launched an offensive to rescue its boss. Security forces today removed dozens of stolen and burned cars throughout the city of 800,000 inhabitants , in whose streets fierce battles were fought on Thursday that reached the international airport and caused scenes of panic among the population.
A colonel who commanded an infantry battalion is among the dead, after his patrol was attacked during operations after the capture of Guzmán Jr., nicknamed “El Ratón,” Sandoval explained. Another 35 soldiers suffered gunshot wounds and received hospital care, while 21 criminals were arrested.
“There is no information on any innocent civilian who has lost their lives,” Sandoval said during the daily conference of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who for his part stressed that the operation was carried out “responsibly.” , the president said that “there is a calm in these last hours” in the city.
“We do not share the interpretation that the recapture of Ovidio Guzmán is a delivery to Joe Biden, we act with autonomy,” the president also warned, according to the newspaper El Universal.
The president reiterated that “there was no intervention by the United States in the recapture of Ovidio Guzmán” but there was cooperation between the two countries, indicated the Europa Press news agency. The operation takes place two days after Biden’s arrival in Mexico, where he has scheduled to meet at a summit of North American leaders with López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In the midst of the offensive by the members of the Sinaloa cartel to rescue their boss, a passenger plane was also hit -moments before taking off- and two aircraft of the Mexican Air Force. Culiacán authorities confirmed today that the air terminal and the highways that are the main communication routes will remain closed during the day for security reasons, reported the local newspaper Noroeste.
Guzmán, of whom until now only one image has been published in which he is seen with a beard and getting on the helicopter that took him to jail, has several pending accounts with the Mexican justice system, so in principle he would not be immediately extradited to the United States. United States, according to the government.
“El Ratón” is being held in El Altiplano, the high-security prison from which his father escaped in 2015 before being recaptured and sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States. Guzmán is accused of leading the Los Menores faction, close to the cartel del Pacífico (or Sinaloa cartel).
The leader of the “Chapitos”, as the heirs of “Chapo” Guzmán are known, had already been arrested on October 17, 2019 in Culiacán, but was released by order of López Obrador in the middle of a riot by the criminal organization , pointed out the AFP news agency.
The president then defended his decision and stated that a bloodbath was avoided, when military contingents were surrounded by civilians with long weapons. López Obrador stressed that this time it was “completely different”, since the operation was carried out on the periphery and not in the center of Culiacán, so as not to put the population at risk.
Washington assures that Ovidio Guzmán and his brother Joaquín “El Güero” lead and control the drug trafficking operations of a criminal cell protected by the cartel.
For this reason, both are formally accused of conspiracy to traffic cocaine to the United States, in a court in the District of Columbia, which also maintains an extradition request in force.
Founded four decades ago by “El Chapo”, the Sinaloa cartel is considered by the US agency DEA as the main person responsible for trafficking fentanyl, a drug 50 times more powerful than heroin and which has caused numerous overdose deaths in that country. .
