Mexican President: US shares responsibility for Sinaloa drug cartel violence

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Thursday that the United States was partly responsible for the outbreak of drug cartel violence that left at least 30 people dead in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa last week.

The violence was triggered by the arrest of the reclusive leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, in Texas in July, said Lopez Obrador.

He also said that the “instability and clashes” currently facing Sinaloa are the result of the arrests, which he said were carried out in a “totally illegal” operation.

Washington denies playing a role in Zambada's arrest.

In a letter released by his lawyer, Zambada said he was kidnapped by Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of imprisoned former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and taken to the United States in a small plane. When the plane landed near El Paso, Texas, U.S. authorities arrested him. The younger Guzman was also arrested by the U.S.

The United States had been seeking Zambada for years on drug trafficking and other charges.

Zambada and El Chapo are said to have been partners in a drug cartel. El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a US prison for several drug offenses.

Authorities believe that Zambada's arrest has pitted two factions against each other: the followers of El Chapo and his sons and the followers of Zambada. The two groups have extended their armed struggles to the streets of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa.

Some information for this report comes from The Associated Press.