The grim reality of Mexico's escalating cartel violence was underscored on Monday as four decapitated bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state. This horrific discovery comes amidst a surge of bloodshed that has claimed nearly 20 lives in less than 24 hours, according to authorities.
Culiacan has become the epicentre of a brutal power struggle between two factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel – Los Chapitos and La Mayiza. This internal conflict, which ignited last year, has plunged the city into a state of constant fear and violence.
The city's streets bear daily witness to scattered corpses, homes riddled with bullets, and businesses forced to shutter their doors. Schools regularly close down during waves of violence, while masked young men on motorcycles are a constant, ominous presence, patrolling the main avenues.
On Monday, Sinaloa state prosecutors said that four bodies were found dangling from the freeway bridge leading out of the city, their heads in a nearby plastic bag.
On the same highway Monday, officials said they found 16 more male victims with gunshot wounds, packed into a white van, one of whom was decapitated. Authorities said the bodies were left with a note, apparently from one of the cartel factions, though the note's contents were not immediately disclosed.
Feliciano Castro, Sinaloa government spokesperson, condemned the violent killings on Monday and said authorities needed to examine their strategy for tackling organized crime with the “magnitude” of the violence seen.
“Military and police forces are working together to reestablish total peace in Sinaloa,” Castro said.
Most in the western Mexico state, however, say authorities have lost control of the violence levels.
A bloody power struggle erupted in September last year between two rival factions, pushing the city to a standstill.
The war for territorial control was triggered by the dramatic kidnapping of the leader of one of the groups by a son of notorious capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán who then delivered him to U.S. authorities via a private plane.
Since then, intense fighting between the heavily armed factions has become the new normal for civilians in Culiacan, a city which for years avoided the worst of Mexico’s violence in large part because the Sinaloa Cartel maintained such complete control.
