Culiacan, Mexico (Reuters) -The street vendor said the few tourists who still visit Culiacan no longer look for posters of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and accused drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, once the Mexican city’s most famous residents.
The posters, which for years were in high demand, have become symbolic of a spike in horrific violence sparked by an alleged betrayal that led to Zambada’s arrest one year ago and fueled fighting within the Sinaloa cartel.
“I imagine that at some point in my life, tourism will return to Culiacan,” said Jazmin, who now sells a smattering of magnets, keychains, and mugs. She declined to share her last name because of the constant threat of violence in this once-bustling city of 1 million people.
Friday marks one year since Zambada, one of Mexico’s most infamous accused drug lords, was arrested at an airfield near El Paso, Texas, along with one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Zambada says El Chapo’s son, Joaquin, kidnapped him and turned him over to U.S. agents.
The alleged betrayal was shocking. Prosecutors allege Zambada and “El Chapo” founded the Sinaloa cartel and represented different factions of the criminal organization. The arrests sparked a break in the group and triggered a wave of violence that continues.
During the first six months of this year, authorities registered 883 homicides in Sinaloa compared to 224 during the same period a year earlier. The vast majority happened in Culiacan.
The homicides may be just the beginning. Authorities say more than 1,500 people have gone missing in Sinaloa since September 2024, after Zambada’s arrest. Security officials say criminal groups were involved in many of the disappearances.
“Life in Culiacan is no longer the same,” said a local official who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. “There are no more parties here due to fear,” he said, adding that schools prefer to hold classes online instead of in person.
Security analysts say violence in the state is at the highest level since the last major split between criminal groups in 2008, when the Sinaloa cartel broke an alliance with the Beltran Leyva brothers’ cartel.
“It’s one thing to break a pact through betrayal, as happened then, and another to hand over an important partner, as happened last year,” said Tomas Guevara, an expert on security issues in Sinaloa, referring to Zambada’s alleged abduction. “The situation is more gruesome these days,” he added.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has struggled to control the spiraling violence, sending thousands of heavily armed soldiers to Sinaloa to patrol the area, along with helicopters, armored vehicles, high-caliber weapons, and drones.
Still, the discovery of corpses continues, sometimes piled up by the dozens. Bodies have been hung from bridges and mutilated with messages of revenge between rival groups.
U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that Mexican authorities are “petrified” of the drug cartels and alleged they have enormous control in the country and over Mexican politicians. Sheinbaum said those allegations are blatantly untrue.
Mexican Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said on Sunday during a visit to Sinaloa that the government’s priority is “restoring peace to families.”
Zambada said in February he was willing to plead guilty to charges related to drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons possession if U.S. prosecutors take the death penalty off the table.
(Reporting by Jesus Bustamente in Culiacan and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Edited by Adriana Barrera and Rod Nickel)
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