SUMMARY
The outbreak of fighting between different drug-trafficking gangs in Mexico can be understood against the background of changes in the Mexican political landscape during the last decades. During the 1980s, there was a loose network of drug smugglers controlling their own "plaza" for drug trafficking. Governmental authority was highly centralized under PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Institutional Revolutionary Party) rule and by bribing high officials, the drug smugglers could control their businesses without getting interrupted by the authorities. When single-party rule started to give way to local opposition these networks and relationships were transformed, to the advantage of some actors but to the disadvantage of others. The drug cartels started to fight each other for control over territory and previous alliances fell apart.
The Sinaloa Cartel experienced turbulent times after the capture and extradition of its boss Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as “El Chapo”, to the US in January of 2017. Ismael Zambada García, “El Mayo”, had been a longtime associate of El Chapo Guzmán and was the one of the highest-ranking members of the cartel before El Chapo’s arrest. Naturally, he assumed a central leadership position after El Chapo’s extradition and had few serious contenders for this position. El Mayo was also the leader of the Los Mayos faction within the Sinaloa Cartel. Los Chapitos refers to four sons of El Chapo Guzmán; Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar. They had risen to prominent positions in the Sinaloa Cartel and were able to use their filial ties to become the second most powerful faction in the cartel after their father’s capture.
Initially the two factions maintained a cordial relationship but several events would strain their bonds to the breaking point by the second half of 2019. A pivotal moment for the decline of their relationship was during the so-called “Culicánazo” when Mexican authorities had managed to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López on 17 October 2019. The arrest happened in the Sinaloan city of Culiacán, and the Chapitos faction reacted to the arrest by swarming the city with their hitmen, thus freeing Ovidio. During this event, the Chapitos faction requested the assistance of Los Mayos faction, which they did not receive. The violence started in November 2019 when a personal dispute between hitmen from the two factions intensified, leading to armed confrontations.
The conflict between the two factions took place mainly in the northern Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California, which the Sinaloan provincial capital of Culiacán and its surrounding as the central battleground. In the context of this conflict the Chapitos faction were allied to the Sinaloa Cartel – Los Salazar faction while the Los Mayos faction were allied to the Caborca Cartel run by Caro Quintero in the state of Sonora. Intelligence also indicated that El Mayo had close connections to high-ranking government officials, with narco-banners released by Los Mayos repeatedly claiming that the Mexican government was on their side.
The non-state conflict between the Sinaloa Cartel – Los Chapitos faction and the Sinaloa Cartel – Los Salazar faction was first included in UCDP data in 2020. By March that year, clashes between the two factions had resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
