The southern front is crumbling
The theater of violence in Sinaloa has a devastating new setting: Escuinapa. In just nine days, five members of the municipal police were murdered. The response was immediate, but it did not come from the criminals, but from the very body that should confront them.
Thirty officers simply left. They submitted voluntary resignations or requested early retirements. A rout that reveals the magnitude of fear. Rosario Guadalupe García Camacho, local Security Secretary, admitted it crudely: she only has 49 active elements left, and 28 of them only cover road functions.
“Surprisingly, seven preventive agents, with less than six months of service, presented their voluntary resignations,” the authority cited.
The final trigger was the murder of Pablo ‘N’ this Wednesday. He was followed by an armed motorcyclist and shot to death in front of his house on 12 de Octubre Street. Neighbors found him without vital signs. It was the fifth name on a tragic list that began on March 31.
That day, an ambush on the Mazatlán-Tepic highway killed the deputy operational director, Esteban Gutiérrez Mazariego, and three of his men. The message from organized crime was received loud and clear.
An operation to cover the sun with a finger
Given the collapse, Governor Rubén Rocha Moya announced that a “special operation” is already being designed for the south of the state. He said that the Secretary of State Security, General Sinuhe Téllez López, has instructions to reinforce the presence.
It sounds like a repeated script. They promise to strengthen municipal bodies when they are literally evaporating due to terror. What good is an operation if there is no one to support it on the ground? The strategy seems to arrive late and poorly.
While the authorities talk about reinforcements, the police officers remaining in Escuinapa know that they are moving targets. The state lost control of the scene. Now he must convince his own men not to abandon the performance before the curtain falls completely.
