San José, Sinaloa: From 'Narco' War Zone To Ghost Town

"Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from Milenio 

This Monday, in his weekly conference, the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, was questioned about the situation.

Although Sinaloa authorities denied the gun battles in the sierra of Sinaloa municipality during the weekend, Milenio managed to reach San José de las Delicias, the epicenter of what seems to have been a war, and to verify the traces of the battle, which unofficially is said to have left six people dead, around a dozen vehicles seized, weapons and more than 150 displaced people who fled amidst the hail of bullets.

Sinaloa municipality has the same name as the state and is the largest territorially speaking, is 100 percent mountainous and about 70 kilometers from Sinaloa de Leyva, the municipal seat, is San Jose de las Delicias, better known as Las Calabazas, the town that remained a ghost town, its streets desolate, abandoned houses and businesses.

SAN JOSE DE LAS DELICIAS

"Fortunately, the area in that part is without problems, there is no indication of any type of violence or any activity that is being handled or that was being handled a few days ago," said Carlos Alberto Hernandez Leyva, Sinaloa's Undersecretary of Public Security, on Sunday night.

On the dirt road, a couple of kilometers before arriving, a car on the side of the road confirmed the war, it was already burned in its entirety, and there was an endless number of 7.62 x 39 caliber shells, for AK47. Just at the entrance to the community, two backhoes, two pickup trucks and a dome blocked the access for a couple of days, today, burned in their entirety, they illustrate what the authorities denied, the shooting confrontation.

The Army visited the town on Monday and managed to seize two cars that were completely devoured by the flames and one more armored unit, a GMC Sierra pickup, recent model, almost intact, although also with bullet impacts, while for its part, The Sinaloa Public Security Secretariat confirmed the seizure of two other units, a cattle truck and a gray Cherokee, which was abandoned, with its doors open and inside, a rifle, a pistol and several loaded magazines, but they did not specify the calibers.

MARIO CALABAZAS

Milenio managed to reach the two-story house, as it was known in the area, the home of Mario Alberto Lugo Lara, alias Mario Calabazas, the target of the war. A house that contrasts with the humility of the town, which was shot at, burned in its entirety, damaged its electric gate and in the back garage another pickup truck with bullet impacts.

At least four of Lugo Lara's family members allegedly lived in the surrounding homes, and at least four homes suffered the same consequences, shot at and burned.

Sinaloa is such a large municipality that it borders Mocorito, Salvador Alvarado and Guasave, and families from the highlands fled to all three municipalities, fleeing violence in their homes; Officially, the Secretary of Public Security recognized more than 60 families, more than 150 people, who "got off" with their families or were sheltered in the CBTIS of the city of Guamúchil, where the authorities provided them, through the Secretary of Welfare, with food, medicine, medical attention, a shelter where they could sleep safely, clothes and shoes, as well as psychological attention because many of them could not cope with the nervous breakdown after days of living among the gun battles.

This Monday, in his weekly conference, the governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha Moya, was questioned about the situation, an issue he minimized by pointing out that there were no traces of people having lost their lives.

"There are no traces of wounded or dead people, but shell casings were found," he said.

While to the citizens he sent word that: 

"If you are afraid get down, here we are going to give you attention...whoever is afraid get down" he culminated.

It is worth noting that on Saturday, at midday, a group of Red Cross first responders, based in Guasave, were "lifted" when they were asked for help in a supposed service, however, armed civilians took them away to attend to their injured colleagues, and after the attention, they returned them, safe and sound, without a scratch.

Source: MILENIO