What I Saw in Sinaloa
The author reports from Culiacán, Mexico, documenting the coexistence of daily life and extreme cartel violence. The piece explores how social media influencers and ordinary citizens navigate a city caught in a brutal turf war.
Why it matters
It provides a ground-level perspective on the limitations of U.S. anti-cartel strategies and the normalization of violence in Mexican society.
The U.S. is trying to destroy Mexican cartels. But so far, a turf war has only deepened.
L ast Tuesday night, I was eating sushi with a Mexican police chief in downtown Culiacán, a city that had momentarily flickered back to life amid a bloody cartel turf war. At the table next to us was a birthday party. The police chief ordered a salmon roll. Through the window, I could see groups of families and friends walking on the sidewalk, past car dealerships and strip malls, after months of self-imposed lockdown.
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