Mexico’s government has been forced to release a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, after heavily armed fighters outgunned police and soldiers, sparked a mass prison break and turned the city of Culiacan into a war zone.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez had been detained by security forces earlier in the day after he and three others fired upon National Guard patrol from a house in the city.
Upon his arrest, gunmen from El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel swarmed the city, battling police and soldiers in broad daylight and forcing them to withdraw.
Civilians in Culiacan were forced to take shelter in shopping centres and supermarkets as gun battles raged, with vehicles and at least one petrol station being set ablaze.
Families with young children left their cars and lay flat in the road. Bullets cracked up ahead. “Dad, can we get up now?” a small boy said to his father in a video posted on Twitter.
“No, stay there on the floor,” the man replied, his voice trembling.
A large group of inmates took advantage of the chaos and escaped from the city prison.
Two people were killed and 21 were injured, according to preliminary reports.
Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said: “The decision was taken to retreat from the house, without Guzman, to try to avoid more violence in the area and preserve the lives of our personnel and recover calm in the city.”
Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, a lawyer for El Chapo’s family, told The Associated Press that Guzman’s family has said “Ovidio is alive and free” but that he had no more details about what had happened.
The reaction to Guzman’s capture was on a scale rarely seen during Mexico’s long drug war, even after his more famous father’s arrests. The chaos was continuing as night fell, Reuters reports.
The chaos in Culiacan, long a stronghold for the Guzmans’ Sinaloa cartel, will increase pressure on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office in December promising to pacify a country weary after more than a decade of drug-war fighting. Murders this year are set to be at a record high.
Thursday’s events follow the massacre of more than a dozen police in western Mexico earlier this week, and the killing of 14 suspected gangsters by the army a day later.
Falko Ernst, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Mexico, said the release of Ovidio Guzman set “a dangerous precedent” and sent a message that the state itself, including the army, could be blackmailed and was not in control.
Presumed cartel members apparently intercepted a radio frequency used by security forces, one video showed, warning of reprisals against soldiers if Guzman was not freed.
A state police spokesman confirmed to Reuters that several prisoners escaped from a prison during the chaos. Video footage showed a group of at least 20 prisoners running in the streets. It was not immediately clear how many had escaped.
“They are freeing them,” a panicked woman said in the video apparently filmed from an tall building. “No we can’t go outside!” she said as other voices debated making a dash for their car.
In another video, a man driving repeatedly shouted: “There is a big gunfight,” before taking a sharp turn and leaving his car at a gas station to take cover. His voice then became inaudible because of the rattling roar of automatic gunfire.
El Chapo led the Sinaloa cartel for decades, escaping from prison twice before being arrested and extradited to the United States. He was found guilty in a US court in February of smuggling tons of drugs and sentenced to life in prison.
He is believed to have about 12 children including Ovidio. The US Department of Justice unveiled an indictment against Ovidio and another of the brothers in February, charging them with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana in the United States.
The indictment gave Ovidio’s age as 28, and said he had been involved in trafficking conspiracies since he was a teenager.