Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has blamed the U.S. government for the current cartel turf war that is terrorizing residents of the state of Sinaloa. The politician claimed that if U.S. authorities had not worked to arrest one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s top leaders, the country would be at peace.
The comments come as the state of Sinaloa is ground zero for a fierce turf war between the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel and the faction loyal to the family of recently arrested kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. The turf war has led to dozens of murders and countless more abductions.
During one of his daily news conferences this week, a reporter asked if the U.S. government was responsible for the violence.
“Yes, of course they are,” Lopez Obrador replied. “For having carried out that operation. They need to internalize that they can’t just act like that without taking into account Mexico’s government.”
Lopez Obrador claimed that there was an accord between the U.S. Department of Justice and the Chapitos faction so that Joaquin Guzman Lopez could surrender and capture Zambada. The Mexican politician questioned why the USDOJ changed the detention status of Ovidio Guzman, one of the members of the Chapitos, at the same time that his brother was helping capture Zambada.
“If we are facing this situation in Sinaloa it is because they took that decision,” Lopez Obrador said. “In Sinaloa, we didn’t have the violence that we have now.”
As Breitbart Texas has been reporting, on July 25, the Chapitos captured Zambada during a meeting with top politicians in Sinaloa. They put him in a plane that landed near El Paso, Texas, where U.S. authorities were waiting for him. Since the arrest, there was a short period of tense peace as both factions prepared and on September 9 both factions began openly fighting. While Mexico’s government has only confirmed 48 fatalities, unofficial accounts point to a much higher figure, which brought this part of Mexico to a complete standstill.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.