The 'Culiacanazo', remains an open wound

 Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat   Reforma

On October 17, 2019, the most shocking criminal event in the history of Sinaloa occurred: a series of decisions that paralyzed Culiacán and caused a wound that has not yet  healed.

That day, the Sinaloa Cartel took by surprise all the inhabitants of this city, threatening them with their rifles, blocking streets and causing terror as an act of negotiation with the federal authorities who had arrested one of the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, "El Chapo".

The relationship that existed between civil society and the criminal organization was fractured, not broken, but strongly splintered, specialists have defined, because that day the violence that they can exercise against the population was revealed.

"That day we thought that war was going to come, we learned about all the weapons that criminal groups could have," said Anajilda Mondaca Cota, Doctor in Social Sciences and Humanities for the Autonomous University of the West.

Surrounding this at stake was  a social discourse constructed by criminal groups, that of their being protectors of the city.

"There was the belief that the cartel cared, but that day we wondered if they were really good, because maybe they never were," said Dante Aguilera, activist member of the Juan Panadero Popular Graphics Workshop.

"This has happened because the government has left them."

On October 17, 2019, an operation was carried out by the National Guard and the Army in Culiacán. They tried to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López, Guzmán Loera's son, and that was achieved, but that caused an unexpected reaction, said Tomás Guevara Martínez, Doctor of Social Sciences for the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.

"It took all citizens by surprise, we did not expect something like this to happen." he said.

The operation of the federal forces began around 2:00 p.m., when Guzmán López's house in the Tres Ríos subdivision began to be surrounded. Fifty minutes later, the elements entered the house and the sound of guns and rifles began to echo like a scene of terror.

There were at least 500 armed men, members of criminal groups, surrounding the house to prevent the arrest of Chapo’s son, but they did not succeed.

Immediately, that violence spread to the entire Tres Ríos sector, the Infonavit Humaya, Vicente Guerrero and Villa Universidad neighborhoods.

There, up to 13 people were said to have died, including a soldier and three civilians who were passing through the place without knowing of the violence unleashed.

The armed men stole more than 50 vehicles, threatened the people of Culiacan with rifles, some were beaten and others were injured.

"My girlfriend and I were coming to the University when we saw that there were some armed men. We turned around here and it sounded  like a bullet hit the car. It turned off and we ran, that's when I felt that a bullet had hit me in the leg "said Eddy, an anonymous witness.

"When we went out there were men in front shooting at the policemen and we hardly ran when I realized that blood was coming out of my chest, but I could not stop, the bullets hit the floor and buzzed very loudly past until we took shelter in the supermarket."

The strategy of the armed groups was to hold hostage the city, close the entrances and exits to roads with blockades made with trailers and burning cars. The same with different streets and the airport of the city.

The violence escalated until more than 40 prisoners from the Aguaruto prison fled after rioting and the lives of at least 200 people were threatened in the March 21 military housing complex.

"There were armed men who came in and wanted to take the military," said another witness.

All that event ended with the presidential order to release Guzmán Loera's son. The armed men withdrew celebrating with bullets in the air, leaving the ashes of the burned vehicles and damage quantified in millions of pesos.

"The attack that stained black on Thursday, October 17, 2019 was a disruptive event. It broke the level of violence that the city had experienced, broke the tranquility of its inhabitants, it sowed a latent fear that arises again when rumors spread or shootings occur.  They interrupt the daily routine again, "said Óscar Fidel González Mendívil, State Commissioner for Victims.

"The impacts of the violence deployed that day by organized crime have not yet been recognized or studied. As we said a year ago, the act made us all victims."

The important thing, he said, is to serve people with a social perspective, since everything was repaired, the walls, the windows of the restaurants in the Tres Ríos sector, the traffic lights and the streets, where the vehicles caught fire, however, in Culiacán the open wounds of the inhabitants still remain.