2019-11-04_Time

21

in mexico’s big ciTies, dRug-caRTel
gunmen normally act like phantoms. They
hide in safe houses or amid communities,
suddenly striking with an assassination or a
gunfight, and then disappearing again.
But on Oct. 17 in the Sinaloan city of
Culiacan, the cartel gunmen were every-
where. Flights in and out of the airport
were canceled as they took control of
roads, blocked government buildings and
exchanged fire with security forces for hours,
leaving at least 14 people dead. Everyone else
had to act like ghosts, hiding behind locked
doors, not daring to step outside.
And in this unusual battle, the Sinaloa Car-
tel won. The uprising was in response to sol-
diers’ storming a house and arresting Ovidio
Guzmán López, the 28-year-old son of con-
victed kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
In February, the U.S. Justice Department an-
nounced it had indicted Guzmán López on
charges of trafficking cocaine, marijuana and
meth. But after hours of cartel chaos, Mexi-
co’s federal government capitulated, giving
soldiers the green light to release him.
“The city was under siege,” says Vladimir
Ramirez, a political scientist in Culiacan.
“People slept wherever they were. Businesses
are closed. Nobody wants to go out.”
This change is the result of a bloody trend
of cartels developing insurgent tactics over

BUSINESS

Not-so-secret ingredients

In a suit filed Oct. 17, Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch alleges that a former employee, now

working for longtime rival MillerCoors, obtained its secret beer recipes. (MillerCoors says it

“respects confidential information.”) Here, other recipe leaks. ÑCiara Nugent

CREAM SCHEME

In 2014, a federal court found

two men guilty of stealing

DuPont’s recipe for a chemical

used in paper, plastic—and

the filling in Oreo cookies. They

sold the info to a state-owned

Chinese firm.

SPICY SCOOP

While reporting a story on

Colonel Sanders in 2016, a

journalist snapped a picture of a

family scrapbook that appeared

to detail KFC’s secret spice mix

for its fried chicken. KFC denied

its authenticity.

KERNEL OF TRUTH

In April, the parent company of

Garrett Popcorn Shops sued

its former research director,

alleging she stole recipes. The

files were guarded by biometric

sensors and accessible by only

three people’s thumbprints.

many years. The cartels have armed up with

stolen military weapons and an endless

stream of rifles from the U.S.; from 2007 to

2018, more than 150,000 firearms seized in

Mexico were traced to U.S. gun shops and

factories. And they have learned to protect

their leaders with rings of gunmen who can

cause trouble to stop their capture.

“The Sinaloa Cartel demonstrated a tre-

mendous ability to mobilize rapidly and

take effective control of the city,” says Raul

Benitez, an expert on Latin America’s armed

conflicts. “They showed that in Sinaloa, they

are the ones who run things.”

In contrast, the Mexican military was in

shambles. Officials made contradictory state-

ments about why the soldiers had gone to ar-

rest Guzmán López without enough backup.

In many places in the city, the cartel gun-

men went unchallenged. There were reports

that the cartel had held various soldiers hos-

tage and threatened to kill them. “You can’t

fight fire with fire,” President Andrés Manuel

López Obrador said on Oct. 18. “We don’t

want deaths. We don’t want war.”

The worry now is that the Mexican gov-

ernment’s decision to release Guzmán López

sets a precedent. If other traffickers are ar-

rested, their cohorts could kidnap people to

demand their release. It also raises the spec-

ter of the cartel’s appearing more powerful

than the army, which could have implications

for governability. There has long been an

image of traffickers as rebels; some in Sinaloa

call them valientes (brave ones). Now it seems

as if these rebels are almost in control.

—ioan gRillo

GOOD QUESTION

How did El Chapo’s

drug cartel beat the

Mexican army?

NEWS

TICKER

Northern

Ireland makes

abortion legal

Abortion and same-

sex marriage were

decriminalized in

Northern Ireland on

Oct. 21, after the

regional government

failed to reassemble

in time to block the

legislation. The new

policy, which was

passed by the U.K.’s

Parliament in July,

brings Northern Ireland

in line with the rest of

the nation.

Energy

Secretary Rick

Perry to resign

Rick Perry, one of

President Trump’s

original Cabinet picks,

will resign as Energy

Secretary by the end

of 2019, the White

House said Oct. 17.

Perry, who pushed for

increased U.S. fossil-

fuel exports, has been

subpoenaed by the

House as part of the

impeachment inquiry

into the President.

Netanyahu

fails to build a

coalition

Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu

has failed to form a

coalition government

for the second time

this year, meaning

opposition leader

Benny Gantz gets the

opportunity to do so.

Gantz has until Nov. 21

to form a government;

if he cannot, Israel

could face its third

election in 2019.