Views: 1
US ambassador Ken Salazar has rejected claims that his country was responsible for the cartel violence shaking Mexico’s Sinaloa state, after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the United States shared blame.
Mexico has seen a recent surge in cartel warfare since Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García landed in a small plane near El Paso, Texas on July 25 with Joaquín Guzmán López — a senior member of the Los Chapitos faction of the cartel, which rivals Mr Zambada’s.
Upon landing in the US, Mr Zambada was arrested on charges of murder conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and trafficking illegal drugs.
He later said in a letter circulated by his lawyer that he had been abducted by Mr Guzmán and taken to the US against his will.
Fighting between the factions broke out over the operation on September 9, and the resulting shootouts have disrupted daily life in Sinaloa capital Culiacán.
At least 53 people have died in Mexico’s Sinaloa state as factions of its powerful cartel clash over the arrest of leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García in the United States.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the US shared blame for the instability because they “carried out” the operation which prompted it.
US ambassador Ken Salazar has rejected the blame, calling the notion of responsibility “incomprehensible”.
ABC