Badiraguato Sinaloa: Fighting of "Chapitos" against Chapo's brother has caused hundreds of families to flee

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat- From Reforma

More than 300 entire families from seven villages of Badiraguato have been  displaced since July of this year by disputes between the children and one of the brothers of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera.

According to the Secretariat of Social Development of Sinaloa, the towns that had displacements are Potrerillos, Carricitos, Saucitos, and San Javier, San Javier de Arriba, Cieneguita de los López and Sierrita de Potrerillos.

These towns were turned into disputed land by Aureliano Guzmán Loera, brother of "El Chapo", and of Jesús Alfredo and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, sons of the capo who faces a trial for drug trafficking in the United States.

Inhabitants of San Javier, San Javier de Arriba and Potrerillos, who requested anonymity, narrated that the struggle began in 2017.

At first, they pointed out, Aureliano and his nephews undertook an attack in San Javier against Héctor Román, "El Pinto", who acted independently in  the planting, harvesting and trafficking of marijuana and poppy in the area of ​​Badiraguato that is closest to Chihuahua.

Roman moved,  along with dozens of families from those villages. After that, an exodus of people began in other towns around San Javier due to threats, disappearances and murders.

"The villagers do not participate in the clash, but they are all in the middle and better they  leave  because they do not allow them to work up there," said one of those affected.

After the displacements, the brother and the children of Guzmán Loera initiated another dispute for the territory with confrontations between armed groups and the blocking of roads towards San Javier.

One of those clashes occurred in November 2017, when the death of 11 people was reported.

However, the Secretariat of Public Safety of Sinaloa rejected that version and, instead, established that at least three vehicles were found abandoned with bullet marks, but not people killed.

Blanca Rosa Castañeda Verduzco, director of the Sinaloan Institute of Adult Education, confirmed that the 2017-2018 cycles was suspended in the schools of those towns and that in the current one it was decided to send teachers to continue studies with the remaining inhabitants.

The Ministry of Social Development conducted a census of people displaced by violence in Badiraguato and registered 295+ families from seven settlements in 43 colonias of Culiacán, the state capital.

"They were attended immediately with food  as support for the  time of transition in Culiacán," the report said.

Raúl Carrillo Castaños, head of the agency, said that displaced people in Badiraguato are gradually returning to recover their assets.