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Mexican Army deploy 600 troops to Choix, Sinaloa
 For a map, click here By Chris Covert Rantburg.com The Mexican Army has deployed 300 troops in the Sinaloa municipality of Choix with 300 more scheduled to deploy in the coming days as army troops move into the area in the aftermath of some of the bloodiest fighting in the Mexican Drug War to date, according to Mexican news reports. While the total death toll after more than a week of fighting amongst Mexican security forces and an amalgam of criminal gangs is 22, according to data provided by the Sinaloa Fiscalia General de Estado (FGE) or attorney general Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez, the article posted by El Debate news daily website hinted the death toll is likely much higher. This writer counted the dead at 57, including 13 in Guasave municipality near the Pacific coast of Sinaloa and several others in nearby municipalities including El Fuerte. Mexican press reported villagers claiming a number of others were left for dead by criminal groups and are now decomposing in the extreme summer heat of the Mexican Sierra Madres. For example, Urique municipality in Chihuahua state just across the border recorded a high temperature of 46C (114.8F) last week. In Choix proper where the bulk of the fighting took place, the death toll by this author's count is 32. The count should be higher but for some criminal groups' tendency, most notably Los Zetas, to remove their dead to prevent security forces and rival gangs from gaining intelligence. According to the article, refugees from Choix have been filtering down to the west, ending up in El Fuerte, which is only about 20 kilometers southwest of Choix municipal seat along Sinaloa State Highway 32. Other villages reporting refugees from the eastern part of Choix include Chinobampo, which is directly south of the battle area, and a village called Montoya. Those villages report 70 families have fled the mountains in Choix. Other have moved completely out of the mountains to coastal municipalities such as Mazatlan. In El Fuerte municipality, El Debate reported 25 families have fled from the villages of La CofradÃa, Sabino Cuate, El Platanito and El Pantano seeking shelter in El Fuerte municipality seat. The causes of the fighting according to El Debate is a move by the Sinaloa Drug Cartel to eliminate Beltran-Leyva criminal groups operating in the area. The possibility also exists that Choix, sitting astride the only mountain pass between Sinaloa state and Chihuahua state without a major highway, was a logical place to stop Los Zetas infiltration into Sinaloa. Recent fighting between Sinaloa affiliated groups in the Los Zetas home turf of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas has caused Los Zetas operatives to respond in kind in Sinaloa state. Having an ally of their bitterest rival controlling a major mountain pass for the movement of drugs, guns and operatives may have been a risk the Sinaloa Cartel wanted to eliminate. What makes the fighting so unusual is the sheer number of different groups which came to the aid of the Beltran-Leyva group including Los Zetas and Los Aztecas, both gangs aligned with the Juarez Cartel. Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com Posted by: badanov 2012-05-07 |
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