Culiaca, Mexico – A herd of veterinarians climbed through strong metal boxes on Tuesday morning, carrying them one by one in a fleet of semi-camions. Between the load: tigers, monkeys, jaguars, elephants and lions, all fleeing from the last wave of posters that eclipse the city of northern Culiacan.
For years, the exotic pets of the members of the poster and the circus animals have been living in a small refuge of animals on the outskirts of the capital of Sinaloa. However, a bloody struggle of power broke out last year between the rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel, immersing the region in unprecedented violence and leaving the leaders of the Sanctuary Ostok staggering armed attacks, constant death threats and a limit of essential supplies necessary to keep their 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 have never seen violence at this extreme,» said Ernesto Zazueta, president of the Sanctuary of Ostok. «We are worried about the animals that come here to have a better future.»
Violence in the city exploded eight months ago when two rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel began war for territory after the dramatic kidnapping of the leader of one of the groups by a son of the famous hood Joaquín «El Chapo» Guzmán, who then delivered it to the US authorities through a private plane.
Since then, the intense struggle between the strongly armed features has become the new normality for civilians in Culiacan, a city that for years avoided the worst of the violence of Mexico in large part because the Sinaloa poster maintained that complete control.
«With the growing war between the two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, they have begun to extort, kidnap and steal cars because they need funds to finance their war,» said security analyst David Saucedo. «And civilians in Culiacán are the ones who suffer.»
Zazueta, the director of the sanctuary, said that his flight from the city is another sign of how far the war has been leaked in daily 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 animals, accompanied by the Mexican National Guard, began traveling on the highway to Seaside Mazatlan, where they 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 strength of the Chapitos, one of the factions at war.
During the intense periods of violence, the sanctuary staff can hear shots that resonate nearby, the roar of cars and helicopters above, something that they say 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.
Diego García, a member of the shelter staff, is among those who travel to rescue these animals. He said that he regularly receives anonymous threats, with the people who call to know his direction and how to find him. He worries that he is target of removing 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 in this city these days,» 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 Buletons on Monday night on Monday night. «Why don’t the police do anything?» She shouted.
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, injured 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 doing here?'» Said Zazueta. «We cannot risk this happens again. If we are not going, who will treat them?»
The concern of many is that the repression of Mexico against the posters will encounter even more violent power movements by criminal organizations, as has happened in the past, said Saucedo, security analyst.
Zazueta blames the local government and security forces for not doing more, and said that their supplications of help in the last eight months have not been answered.
The Office of the Governor of Sinaloa did not immediately respond 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 forced them to flee, but expect animals to find some relief in Mazatlan after years of 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, although nothing compared to the capital Sinalo.
«It’s at least more stable,» he said. «Because here, today, it’s simply suffocating.»
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Associated Press Videojournalist Fernanda Pesce contributed to this report by Culiacan, Mexico.
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