Cartel Gunmen Take Out Surveillance Cameras in Sinaloa, Mexico

 

Cartel Gunmen Take Out Surveillance Cameras in Sinaloa, Mexico

In Mexico, gunmen have gone on a shooting spree of police surveillance cameras in the city of Culiacán – attacks that not only blind authorities but reinforce cartel control.

The shootings have become such a concern that agents with the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office gathered shotgun casings after the latest incident on October 9, news outlet El Debate reported. That shooting, on a bridge outside the city center, followed a September 28 attack in which armed men shot 84 cameras across the city.

Residents reported hearing gunshots at about 5 a.m. that day. Videos were soon posted on social media of shots being fired, which some mistook for a gunfight. Authorities said the gunmen moved around the city in at least eight vans. They also dropped spike strips in the roads to puncture the tires of police vehicles, according to a report by Revista Espejo.

According to city and state security officials, municipal police possibly aided in the security camera shooting spree. Culiacán Security Secretary Mauricio García Ramírez said at least four elements of the police’s prevention unit are under investigation for possible links to criminal groups, Revista Espejo reported.

Following the September attack, some 150 people employed in businesses around the city center did not show up to work out of fear, El Debate reported.

In early October, only 45 of the city’s 300  surveillance cameras were operating. Since being introduced in 2017, more than 1,000 cameras have been destroyed by criminal groups, according to Revista Espejo.

InSight Crime Analysis

Though there’s continued debate about the effectiveness of camera surveillance in deterring crime, there’s no doubt that taking these cameras out of service helps to intimidate businesses, hamper law enforcement, and assert criminal control over Culiacán’s residents.

The cameras serve as “the eyes of the police,” Security Subsecretary Carlos Alberto Hernández Leyva said in 2019 when a series of shootings left just 400 cameras in operation.

Their destruction hinders patrols and drains the state’s security budget.

Since 2013, the government of Sinaloa has purchased more than 2,600 cameras, investing some 236 million pesos (about $11.5 million) in the police surveillance system, according to Revista Espejo.

SEE ALSO: US Sanctions Reveal CJNG’s Grip on Mexico Port To Move Fentanyl

Despite the number of cameras destroyed, only one person has been arrested in connection with the attacks on the city's surveillance system.

The destruction of Culiacán’s security cameras certainly appears to be systematic. For this reason, it’s most likely the work of the Sinaloa Cartel, or gangs contracted by the criminal group.

Residents of Culiacán are no strangers to these type of power moves by the cartel. In October 2019, the city fell under siege as gunmen forced the release of Ovidio Guzmán López, son of kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.

The ongoing destruction of surveillance cameras in the city serves as a reminder of the group’s omnipresence.

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Indigenous Latest to Suffer Plague of Disappearances in Sonora, Mexico

 

Indigenous Latest to Suffer Plague of Disappearances in Sonora, Mexico

The ongoing search for members of Mexico’s Yaqui Indigenous community, missing for well over a month, has become a rallying cry for activists pointing to the shocking number of disappearances in northern Sonora state.

On July 14, 10 people left the Yaqui community of Loma de Bácum in southern Sonora to drive a herd of cattle to a festival being held at the Agua Caliente Ranch, some 85 kilometers to the north.

They never made it. Nothing has been heard from them since.

In early August, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed authorities were searching for them. And on August 24, during a visit to Sonora, he acknowledged the toll that the Indigenous community was paying due to violence on its lands.

SEE ALSO: Mexico Cartels Find Recruitment Target - Drug Rehab Centers

“The Yaqui governors have accepted the participation of the Defense Ministry, the Navy, the National Guard (on their lands). This will greatly help to guarantee peace,” he said during a speech. He also blamed a rise in violence in Sonora on an increase in fentanyl trafficking.

But for the Yaqui community, the answer went beyond drug trafficking interests. They claim this was the latest act in a systematic campaign to dislodge them from their lands or quell protests against a gas pipeline and mining concessions. Two well-known Yaqui leaders were killed in Sonora in May and June.

How much effort is being expended to find the missing is also in dispute. Media reports have spoken of a grandiose search operation involving up to 12 local and national government agencies, as well as drones and helicopters. Sonora's Attorney General’s Office stated that personal protection and psychological support had been offered to the relatives of the missing men from the outset.

But Guadalupe Flores Maldonado, a member of the Yaqui guard in Loma de Bácum, told a very different story.

“Until now, no official, nobody from the state or federal government has come here to offer their help. And they haven’t sent the National Guard, the Marines, the Defense Ministry, the police or investigators who are meant to be helping,” she told Animal Político in early August.

InSight Crime Analysis

The Yaqui are just one facet of Sonora’s tragedy. Since 2015, over 4,000 people have disappeared in the state, according to figures from authorities and victims’ associations.

“These cases are often not declared ... but we have observed an average of four people a day reported as disappeared,” Manuel Emilio Hoyos, director of the Sonora Observatory for Security, told El Sol de Hermosillo, a local newspaper.

The disappearances cut across social divides. In 2021, there has been a marked increase in cases involving women. InSight Crime found that 41 women were reported as having disappeared between January and April 2021, as opposed to 82 cases declared in all of 2020.

SEE ALSO: Guns in the Gulf – Mexico’s Navy Called to Protect Against Pirates

Migrants trying to reach the United States border are also at risk. While there are no reliable numbers about such disappearances, over 250 have been reported missing in northern Mexico since March 2020, including Sonora.

Sonora is not even the worst-affected part of Mexico, ranking fifth among the states with the most disappearances since 2019.

Sonora’s wave of disappearances are the result of a complex web of factors: criminal groups controlling vast stretches of land through which they prepare, package and transport drugs, contraband and migrants; unmotivated, ill-prepared, corrupt or overwhelmed local authorities who routinely ignore warning signs and do not give disappearance cases high priority; and large, economic interests that may intersect with criminal interests.

The result is almost complete impunity. Only cases out of the ordinary seem to get much attention from the press and, by extension, authorities. For example, last April, 30 Mexican Marines were arrested for their role in several forced disappearances in 2014. The most recent case of the missing Yaqui members is another. But more is needed.

Civil society organizations working to find the missing are being targeted.

On August 24, the same day López Obrador visited Sonora, dozens of activists gathered in Mexico City for a protest and issued a statement calling for greater protection from the state. One of those being commemorated was Aranza Ramos, a 28-year-old woman from Sonora who had joined search parties organized by Madres Buscadoras (Searching Mothers) to find her husband, missing since December 2020. She participated in uncovering mass graves and reportedly received several threats before being gunned down in July at her home in Guaymas, Sonora.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) have both called on the government to investigate Ramos’ death and protect her family.

Meanwhile, the Ramos family, as well as the Yaqui community, continue to wait for answers.

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