Sinaloa Cartel alliances add fuel to internal war

The war continues in Sinaloa, ignoring the urgent needs plaguing the Mexican government. Authorities continue to count the dead, while the warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel seek ways to prevail. This weekend, dozens of armed men appeared in a video widely distributed on social media, confirming a long-standing rumor: an alleged alliance between Los Chapitos, the faction headed by the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Previously, gunfights in the mountainous areas north of Culiacán heralded the possible strengthening of the opposing group, led by the henchmen of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, through alliances with local gangs.

The weekend video enriches the tradition of recordings alluding to the underworld, now common in Mexico. A shadowy voice reads a kind of statement, then the armed men shout and fire into the air. On this occasion, the narrator states that “the rumors are true, the alliance between the CJNG and Los Chapitos is confirmed, the cleanup has begun. It’s all Mr. Mencho and Mr. Iván’s people [referring to Iván Arhivaldo Guzmán and CJNG leader Nemesio ”El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes]!” Then the gunshots begin, and immediately afterward, what sound like shouts imitating roosters crowing (another reference to the CJNG). The video cuts out at this point. Beforehand, the voice addresses “all the victors who have become corrupted,” that is, the allies of Los Chapitos who have switched sides.

It’s impossible to determine how much of the propaganda in the video is true. Since October, weeks after the internal Sinaloa Cartel war began, rumors about a pact between Los Chapitos and the CJNG began to surface on social media. At that time, journalist Luis Chaparro, a specialist in the Mexican criminal underworld, indicated by citing a source within Los Chapitos that the alliance was real, and that it centered around Adrián Alonso Covarrubias, known as “El Ocho,” El Mencho’s godson. There was no further news of the pact for several months, until now.

Disregarding the statements of an alleged member of Los Chapitos speaking to reporters, or the information revealed in a propaganda video disseminated by alleged criminals, might seem reasonable, mainly due to the opaque nature of their motivations. But this case is different. Late last week, the DEA confirmed the rumors, stating that “a strategic alliance between CJNG and Los Chapitos has the potential to expand these groups’ territories, resources, firepower, and access to corrupt officials, which could result in significant disruption to the existing balance of criminal power in Mexico.”

This month thus appears as a kind of turning point in the war. Since May 5, clashes between the two sides, which had occurred mainly in the capital of Sinaloa, Culiacán, and the southern municipalities, have spread to the mountainous area north of the city. Trucks with armed men have circulated in broad daylight through municipalities like Guamuchil, and gunmen have exchanged fire in Choix and Badiraguato. Shots have reached the once peaceful municipality of Mocorito, known for its mining activity. On social media, rumors have swirled that some of the dominant gangs in those municipalities, previously close to Los Chapitos, have joined the opposing side. In the video, the suggestion is the same: all the allies who switched sides.

Again, it’s difficult to know whether this is true or not, but it seems like the most sensible explanation. On Friday, the YouTube channel Ocran Leaks, which specializes in the underworld in Mexico, particularly in Sinaloa, reported that the “flipped” groups respond to the structure of “Los Cholos,” commanded until a few years ago by Iván “El Cholo” Gastelum, a former lieutenant of El Chapo Guzmán. Ocran points out that Los Cholos would have received support from the groups commanded by Isidro Meza, alias “El Chapo Isidro,” from Guasave and Los Mochis, a little further north.

All these movements also coincide with rumors circulating since February about Iván Archivaldo Guzmán‘s last-minute escape from authorities in Culiacán that same month. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported on the evasion, which occurred in a house in the north of the city, thanks to a hidden tunnel in a bathroom. Iván was thus emulating his father, a former criminal kingpin and master of escapes in North America — El Chapo broke out of prisons, plural, as well as evading authorities from some of his homes — who is now serving a life term in the United States.

Iván Archivaldo’s escape, first reported by Mexican journalists Luis Chaparro and José Luis Montenegro, highlighted the difficulties facing his group. On the one hand, Los Chapitos were focusing their efforts on containing El Mayo’s henchmen; on the other, they were trying to hide from authorities, who, while arresting members of the two factions and seizing drugs and weapons from both, have been targeting Los Chapitos more in recent months with regard to the number of alleged members arrested.

Uncertainty looms over the future of the conflict. These alleged new alliances are reminiscent of those established during the previous cycle of the war between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, 17 years ago, when then-allies El Chapo and El Mayo clashed with the Beltrán Leyva brothers, a battle that arose, as it does now, because the former handed one of the latter’s members over to the authorities. The difference is that the person betrayed now was El Chapo’s former partner. The Beltrán Leyvas allied themselves for war then with the bloodthirsty Los Zetas, one of the many battles that explain the Mexico of that era, and also the country of today.

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