CJNG vs Sinaloa (El Mayo) and Santa Rosa de Lima: three cartels at war over control of Guanajuato

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  TY GUS  Infobae and La Silla Rota

Since November 2019, rumors began to circulate that hitmen from Sinaloa, allied with "El Marro" and had arrived in Guanajuato to stop the advance of El Mencho and CJNG.

Sunday, February 18, 2020:  A group of elements from the Navy and the Prosecutor of Guanajuato breaks into a VIP restaurant in Celaya.

Among those arrested were Luis Ángel Lara Belman, alias “El Tortugo”, identified as one of the leaders of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel; five of his companions were three active elements of the Mexican Navy, and two emissaries from the Sinaloa Cartel.

The group was in full negotiation when the authorities broke in.

The governor of Guanajuato revealed that the members of the Navy came from other entities; He said he could not offer more details because the Navy had requested confidentiality.

Various sources confirmed that since 2017 "El Marro" was seeking a type of alliance or pact with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

In fact, as of that year, the CJNG's offensive against the “El Marro” organization increased exponentially: in a few months, executions shot up 160 percent.

Currently, the state of Guanajuato is going through its worst time in terms of violence. In the month of April 2020 alone, 326 executions were registered (no other state presented these numbers). In some municipalities, Celaya among them, violent deaths grew 66%, according to an analysis by Lantia Consultores.

That month 67 executions occurred in León, 63 in Celaya, 45 in Salamanca and 37 in Irapuato. Of the ten municipalities in the country with the highest number of executions last April, four were from Guanajuato.

Leaked converstation

In March 2019 a conversation was leaked between the former mayor of Cortazar, Hugo Estefanía, and the right hand of El “Marro”: Noé Lara Belman, alias “El Puma”.

In that talk, the former mayor, state leader of the PRD, explained to Puma new ways to steal public money: “I tell you how ... because there is a lot of clean resources, without interference. I determine how much is going to arrive, how to do it; A fund comes to (combat) the huachicol ... From fucking public work, I already brought 30 million from there”.

In the same talk, Hugo Estefanía suggested extorting Oxxos, and confessed to having secured the candidacy for the state government in 2024.

“El Puma” entrusted Estefanía, in turn, the mayor of San José Iturbide, Genaro Martín Zúñiga , from Morena" is my friend."

It also explains how to steal Villagrán's resources, since Juan Lara, mayor and uncle of "El Puma", governs there.

According to intelligence reports, "El Puma" was expelled from the cartel.

It is believed that he began to leak sensitive information to the enemies of "El Marro", and that he later sought the support of one of the Cártel de Sinaloa groups: the detainees in the Vips were close to Chapo Guzmán's children: Los Chapitos.

Hugo Estefanía was assassinated last November 30 inside the trucking company he owned.

The state government was a few days away from arresting him. Gunmen entered the establishment and shot him in the head, chest and abdomen.

Today Guanajuato is the trenches of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, the Jalisco Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.