“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
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Violence escalated beyond measure in Sinaloa, mainly in the state of Sinaloa, and the reported material damage is increasing. |
Second Culiacanazo, 443% more cars stolen
With the second capture of Ovidio Guzmán, heir to the Sinaloa Cartel, property damage has increased by approximately 443 percent, if only the number of stolen cars is considered, and if they are compared to the events that occurred in October 2019, in the first “Culiacanazo”, point out figures collected by La Verdad Noticias.
So far, the figures of vehicles stolen by the capture of Guzmán in Culiacán this Thursday has left the report of 250 stolen cars and others burned, a figure more than five times higher than that recorded by local media at the end of October 2019, days after the first event, which yielded the figure of between 46 and 50 illegally stolen cars.
At that time, it was reported that a group of about 50 criminals took over Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, and with long weapons, they were destroying the city to demand Guzmán’s release. At that time their requests were granted by the Army and Ovidio returned to freedom.
This Thursday, was a darker one than that of October 17, 2019, the events escalated further, with greater severity and geographical extension.
The shootings, the burned cars, and the damage to patrimony happened in Culiacán, Mazatlán, the most important tourist port in the continental part of northeastern Mexico, Los Mochis, and Ciudad Obregón in Sonora.
The fire and gunfire even hit a couple of planes on the ground at the Culiacán airport, revealing the vulnerability of aviation security, including commercial aviation, as one affected aircraft was an Aeroméxico aircraft with a passenger crew on board.
There were also road blockades with burned cars and trucks, and closure of airports that until this morning remained in Culiacán and Mazatlán, but the aeronautical authorities have assured that they have returned to normal.
The number of deaths and stolen cars has not been determined so far by the authorities, which does not allow us to estimate the damage to the city.
In 2019, the authorities stated that the material damage amounted to 915 thousand pesos, which at the time was rejected by the people, considering that this could only be the equivalent to the value of three or four cars.
Even, the population had problems with the insurance companies to recover their units, or their money, due to the appeals made by these companies arguing that these were cases of terrorism.
The fact now is that the damages continue to add up and the uncertainty in the northeast remains in the face of the power of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Governor Warns Auto Theft Could Rise
“If they have insurance, the insurance pays, if they don’t, we are going to help them, but they need to file a complaint,” said the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya. Rocha Moya admitted that vehicle theft could increase in the municipality of Culiacán as a result of the seizures of vehicles carried out during the operation last Thursday in Jesús María.
“They probably want to replace the vehicles that were lost in the operation, we are going to take care of the gas stations for the same reason, there are a series of points that must be maintained,” he said.”
He also pointed out that they will implement an operation to take care of the gas stations and also prevent the theft of hydrocarbons.
Rocha Moya also warned that precautions should be taken in certain areas where it is believed that the dispossession of vehicles could increase more drastically, such as in the Primavera and Costerita sectors.
For his part, the Secretary General of the Government Enrique Inzunza Cázarez reported that around 120 complaints have been filed for vehicle theft derived from these events.