MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A northern Mexican city known for drug gang activity erupted in violence overnight, with gunfire ringing out and street blockades going up, authorities in the state of Sinaloa said on Thursday, causing local government to suspend activities and public transport.
Videos posted on social media showed roads blocked by burning vehicles in the city of Culiacan, where Mexican security forces arrested a son of incarcerated kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in 2019 then released him to avoid the threat of violence from his supporters.
“We ask the citizens of Culiacan not to leave home due to the blockades that have occurred in different parts of the city,” Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez wrote on Twitter.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said a federal police operation had been taking place in the state, adding that he did not have further details for the time being.
Sinaloa is home to the powerful drug cartel of the same name, which was long headed by Guzman, who is now in prison in the United States.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Tomas Bravo, Writing by Isabel Woodford and Alistair Bell)
