Sinaloa is a state on the northwest coast of Mexico, on the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. It offered visitors destinations such as Mazatlan and its nearby islands. Maybe it reminds you of Bo Derek and that beach comedy "10".

Yes, Sinaloa has a lot of beautiful spots, but we are sadly talking too much about violence and deaths these days. It's violent down there, as we see in this new report:

After the arrest of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, reportedly handed over to U.S. authorities by his godson Joaquín Guzmán López, son of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, Sinaloa has descended into a violent internal war, with Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, the cartel's two main factions, fighting.

Zambada was captured in July 2024, and just weeks later, on Sept. 9, violence erupted in the state capital, Culiacán, where reports emerged of high-speed chases, shootouts and blockades across several parts of the city.

Since then, thousands have been killed or kidnapped, and according to the Mexican news outlet Noroeste, there have been 1,972 reported homicides in Sinaloa over the past 12 months, an average of 5.4 per day, which marks an increase of more than 200 percent compared with the same period between September 2023 and August 2024, when 600 homicides were reported.

An average of 5.4 per day? That's a lot of people.

The crime figures in Sinaloa have become a major problem for Mexico's political class. They keep telling Mexicans that everything is okay, and then dead people show up. It's a bit like Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, who tells the world that everything is okay while the bodies pile up in Chicago. After a while, people believe their eyes rather than demagogues.

The cartel rivals at war with each other are fighting over territory. They want to control the routes and threaten the local politicians. One cartel will emerge as the winner, and then I guess more violence will follow. On another front, 48 police officers have been killed in Sinaloa.

Mazatlan is still beautiful, but Sinaloa is not at the moment.

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Image: AT via Magic Studio