Thursday, October 17, 2019

Massive gun battle erupts in Mexico, with the government succesfully capturing the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Vehicles burn in the streets of  Culiacan, Mexico. LA Times/AFP.

A massive gun battle erupted in Culican Mexico as an operation to capture the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ovido Guzman Lopez was apparently successful. LA Times. Men armed with automatic rifles and riding in technicals were seen shooting at each other. Mexican media have reported that Ovido Guzman Lopez, son of the infamous El Chapo Guzman, was captured alive but the government has not confirmed that. The battle involved fighters from the Sinaloa cartel and the Mexican Army and the newly formed National Guard. 







My Comment:
Not too much to add with this one, just some incredible combat footage coming out of Mexico today. This was a real battle in a real war, even if nobody seems to want to acknowledge it.

From what I understand, the initial operation to attack Lopez was a success but fighting broke out as the cartel members came back in force in an attempt to rescue him. That seems to have failed, though the situation is still fluid.

It's fairly amazing how well armed the cartel members are. I have seen (and posted) video of them using heavy weapons, including heavy machine guns mounted on trucks, rocket propelled grenades and even anti-material rifles. These fighters were loaded for bear and it's pretty impressive that the Mexican forces were able to fight them off.

Taking down Lopez will do quite a bit of damage to the Sinaloa cartel. There is always a power struggle when one of these leaders go down and it may lead to a civil war in the cartel as various factions try to gain control. Indeed, that was already happening with the Guzmen brothers facing an attempt by cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to take over. That effort probably got a boost today

Other cartels may try to take advantage of the situation as well. The Sinaloa cartel is weak now without their leader and may be targeted by other cartels. This could lead to even more violence and death.

I do wonder why Mexico's president authorized this operation.  Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Almo) has said he was going to end the war in Mexico but this seems like a massive escalation. This will almost certainly lead to more violence as the cartels fight with each other due to the weakness of Sinaloa cartel. And they may even begin more attacks on the government as a reprisal...

EDIT: More video









EDIT #2: He's been released. Unbelievable.

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