In this city built from the spoils of Mexico’s richest drug-trafficking empire, they’re calling it the “narco-pandemia’’ — not a virus but a deadly reckoning inside the Sinaloa cartel that has left businesses shuttered, schools empty and the streets nearly deserted.
Even the glitzy bars, exclusive car dealerships, and plastic surgery boutiques catering to cartel lieutenants and their entourages are mostly closed.
Driving around after dark is a lonesome experience, the eerie consequence of what many label a “voluntary” curfew.
“Right now, there’s a psychosis everywhere in Culiacán,” said Donaciano García, a trumpet player and leader of a band desperate for work since cantinas and dance halls have shut down. “Things are terrible. No one wants to leave their home. It’s worse than the pandemic.”
More than 140 people have been killed in the last month, many of their bodies dumped on the streets.
Click here to read the complete, original article by Patrick J. McDonnell in The Los Angeles Times
Source: Los Angeles Times
