Sinaloa rights chief questions response to violence

Reporting and context

Sinaloa has not addressed the conditions that helped produce its prolonged violence, despite the deployment of roughly 20,000 federal agents, state human rights commission president Óscar Loza Ochoa warned.

According to Noroeste, Loza Ochoa said security forces had not delivered the improvement expected more than two years into the confrontation between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. He argued that the response requires changes across government and participation from society, rather than placing responsibility entirely on police.

Noroeste reported that Loza Ochoa cited the killings of women as one measure of the continuing violence: 26 in August, 24 in September and 22 in October, totaling 72 victims over those three months. Those figures were his account of the period, rather than a count of a single operation or incident.

He also questioned whether parts of the state's economy deserved scrutiny for possible links to illegal activity. He pointed to the continued growth of vehicle sales and raised a question about their relationship to the illegal economy, without identifying a business or establishing such a connection.

For prevention, he called for involvement from universities, the state education and culture department, the Sinaloa Institute of Culture and municipal culture departments. He said it would be unfair to make security forces alone responsible for restoring the conditions Sinaloa had before September 8, 2024.

Original reporting: https://www.noroeste.com.mx/culiacan/sinaloa-no-ha-cambiado-las-causas-que-propiciaron-la-violencia-advierte-la-cedh-PG27304391