A package of veterinarians climbed high metal boxes in Tesday Morning, carrying them one by one in a fleet or semi trucks. Between the load: tigers, monkeys, jaguars, elephants and lions, all fleeing from the last wave of Poster violence Eclipse the city of northern Culiacán.
For years, Exotic pets or cartel members And circus animals have been living in a small refuge of animals on the outskirts of the capital of Sinaloa. However, a bloody power of power broke out last year between the rival Sinaloa poster FACTIONS, which is left with the region in unprecedented violence and leave the leaders of the sanctuary showing armed attacks, constant death threats and a limit of the essential supplies necessary to keep 700 animals alive.
The aid organization is now leaving Culiacán and transports the hours of animals throughout the state in the hope that they escape from the worst part of violence. But the fight has widespread in the region that many fear that it inevitably is updated.
“We never saw violence at this extreme,” said Ernesto Zazueta, president of the Sanctuary of Okste. “We are worried about the animals that come here to have a better future.”
The violence in the city exploded eight months ago when two rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel supplied in war for territory after The dramatic kidnapping of Ismael “El Mayo” ZambadaThe leader of one of the groups, by a son of the famous hood Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán who handed it to US authorities through a private plane.
Zambada and son of “El Chapo” Joaquín Guzmán López They were arrested when they landed in Texas.
Since then, the intense struggle between the strongly armed features has become the new normality for civilians in Culiacán, a city for years avoided the sausage of the violence of Mexico in large part because the Sinaloa cartel controls control.
“With the growing war between the two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, they have begun to extort, kidnap and steal cars, they need funds to finance their war,” said security analyst David Saucedo. “And civilians in Culiacán are the ones who suffer.”
Felix Márquez / AP 
Animals scared by poster fight
Zazueta, the director of the sanctuary, said that his flight from the city is another sign of how far war has reached everyday life.
This week, shelter staff charged roaring animals in a convoy while some coaches tried to calm animals. One murmured in a soft voice as he fed a carrot bag to an elephant in a shipping container: “I will be here, nobody will do anything to you.”
The veterinarians and the animals, accompanied by the Mexican National Guard, blessed traveling along the highway until Mazatlan, where he planned to free animals in another wildlife reserve.
The relocation occurred after months of planning and training the animals, a movement made by the organization in an act of despair. They said that the sanctuary was caught in the crossfire of the war due to its proximity to the city of Jesús María, a fortress or the Chapitos, one of the factions at war.
Duration of intense perds of violence, the sanctuary staff can hear shots of shots that resonate nearby, the roar of cars and helicopters on top, something says that it scares animals. The poster that fights regularly blocks staff to reach the sanctuary, and some animals have spent days without eating. Many have begun to lose skin and at least two animals have died due to the situation, said Zazueta.
To complicate things is the fact that a growing number of animals that rescue are former narco pets that are abandoned in rural strips of the State. In one case, a Bengal tiger was discovered chained in a square, caught in the center of the shootings. Urban legends circulate in Sinaloa that capos feeds their enemies to pet lions. The United States Department of Justice claimed in an accusation published in 2023 that the children of “El Chapo” and its Cartel Associates He fed some of his victims “dead or alive to the Tigers.”
Diego García, a member of the shelter staff, is among those who travel to rescue these animals. He said he regularly receives anonymous threats, and the people who call people who say they know their address and how to find it. Hello, you are worried that it is target of walking to the old bonnet pets. Zazueta said the shelter also receives calls that threaten to burn the sanctuary to the ground and kill the animals if the payment is not made.
“There is no safe place on the thesis days of this city,” Garcia said.
That is the feeling of many in the city of 1 million. When the sun rises, parents look for news of shootings as if it were the weather, to determine if it is safe to send their children to school. The burned houses feel plagued with bullets and occasionally appear bodies hanging from the bridges outside the city. At night, Culiacan becomes a ghost city, leaving bars and closed clubs and many without work.
“My son, my son, I’m here. I’m not going to leave you alone,” a mother shouted, sobbing on the side of the road and cursing the officials while inspecting the body of their son, extended and surrounded by bullet housings below. “Why don’t the police do anything?” She shouted.
“What are we doing here?”
In February, while driving a refuge vehicle used for animal transport, Garcia said he was forced from the car by an armed and masked man in a SUV. At gunpoint, they stole the truck, the medicine of the animals and the tools used by the rescue group and left it trembling next to the road.
The rupture point for the Sanctuary of Ostok arrived in March, when one of the two elephants under his care, Bireki, bothered his foot. The veterinarians hastened to find a specialist to treat it in Mexico, the United States and beyond. No one would challenge the trip to Culiacán.
“We ask ourselves:” What are we here? “” Said Zazueta. “We cannot risk this happens again. If we are not going, who will treat them?”
Felix Márquez / AP 
The concern of many is that the repression of Mexico in the posters will be with even more violent power movements by criminal organizations, as has been caused in the past, said Saucedo, the security analyst.
Zazueta blames the local government and security forces for not doing more, and said that his supplications of help in the last eight Monhs have not been an answer.
The Office of the Governor of Sinaloa did not respond immediately to an application comment.
The sanctuary made the movement without any public announcement, worried that they could face repercussions of local officials or the same posters that force them to flee, but expect animals to find some relief in Mazatlan after the conflict.
Garcia, the sanctuary staff member, is not so safe. While expecting the best, he said that he has also seen that the poster’s violence spread like cancer throughout the Latin American country. Mazatlan also faces bursts of violence, thought that nothing compared to the capital Sinalo.
“It’s at least more stable,” he said. “Because here, today, it’s simply suffocating.”
The violence of the poster is also frequent in the central state of Guanajuato, the most fatal state in Mexico. This week, the gunmen opened fire and killed seven people, including some minors, in a place in the city of San Felipe, police said. It is believed that violent crime is linked to the conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and Jalisco New Generation posterOne of the most powerful in Mexico.