Fear grips Mexican towns after abduction of mine workers in Sinaloa
Tension in Mexico’s Pacific-coast mountains deepened in mid-February after 10 mine employees were abducted near the town of Panuco in Sinaloa, a case that has fueled local fear and renewed questions about the government’s security message for the state. AP described towns along a twisting road above the resort city of Mazatlán where the streets appeared nearly empty, with residents reporting that they had fled violence and were afraid to return.
According to AP, the abducted workers were employed by a Canadian-owned silver and gold mine, and the abduction occurred in late January. By the time of AP’s report, the bodies of five workers had been located nearby, while the remaining five had yet to be identified, with authorities searching for answers in the mountainous area where cartel infighting has played out for months.
Fermín Labrador, a 68-year-old from Chirimoyos, told AP that many residents had fled and that some were “invited” to leave. He described the fear as the product of clashes between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel that have been locked in battle since September 2024, a period in which the conflict has drawn in more of the state beyond the initial areas hit by the fighting.
AP reported that Mexico’s government has pointed to security gains since Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October 2024, including a sharp decline in homicide rates last year. Sheinbaum also signaled a more aggressive approach in Sinaloa with drug seizures and captures after taking power, and AP said it has been one year since she sent 10,000 National Guard troops to the northern border amid concerns linked to fentanyl trafficking that comes largely from Sinaloa.
But the abduction raised doubts about whether the strategy was translating into control for residents in the Sinaloa countryside, AP reported. David Saucedo, a security analyst who has researched cases in Guanajuato, Sinaloa and Sonora, said the events “demolish the federal government’s narrative” that progress was steadily taking hold, and he said Sheinbaum tried to “manage the conflict” as the cartel’s internal war spread and pushed communities to take sides between the two groups.
AP said the mine workers’ disappearance led authorities to bring more troops into the mountains as the search continued by air and on the ground. Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch came to coordinate the operation, and AP reported that several arrests were made; officials later found clandestine graves based on information gleaned from suspects.
Even with an increased security presence, AP reported that residents continued to worry about returning to normal life and about possible harm from security forces. Roque Vargas, a human-rights activist for people displaced by violence in the area, told AP that “all of the hubbub has scattered the organized crime guys” but that they could return, and he said people were concerned about being mistaken for criminals and attacked when they leave their towns—something he said has happened elsewhere in the state.
AP also placed the abduction in a broader timeline of the cartel conflict that followed the capture and transfer of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada by a son of former cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. AP said the transfer was to U.S. authorities and that Zambada’s faction then went to war with the faction led by Guzmán’s sons, known as “los Chapitos,” with violence spreading beyond the capital area of Culiacán and extending statewide.
The mining case has also drawn attention to how organized crime intersects with industrial sites, AP reported. AP said mines, along with other businesses such as avocado groves and fuel pipelines, have long attracted organized-crime attention for extortion or theft of extracted materials, and Saucedo said he had also seen cases where mines used armed groups to control mine opponents.
Vizsla Silver Corp., the Vancouver-based company described as the mine owner, told AP it did not respond to emailed questions from the news organization, but it had previously said in statements that its focus was on finding the remaining workers and supporting affected families. The company also told AP that it was reviewing the circumstances around its employees’ abduction and said it complies with Mexican and Canadian laws, while maintaining “a zero-tolerance approach” toward bribery, corruption, extortion and any unlawful or unethical conduct, according to the statement AP cited.
While officials searched, relatives in multiple communities pressed for information and help locating the missing, AP reported. In the community of El Verde, Marisela Carrizales stood beside banners with photographs of missing people, and she told AP, “I’m here waiting for answers,” saying she has been looking for her son, Alejandro, for 5 ½ years and that she joined a network of collectives to monitor authorities’ work and demand that they look for missing people in additional locations.
AP said authorities found a clandestine grave in early February and then more in subsequent days, with the attorney general’s office saying 10 bodies were found in one location, including five that it said had been identified as the missing mine workers. AP also reported that additional remains were found in four other grave sites around El Verde, according to the Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office.
AP added that missing people cases have continued beyond the mine abduction, citing other kidnappings in the Mazatlán area and the broader fear that has kept teachers, doctors and buses from visiting some communities in the mountains. Fermín Labrador described how access has become difficult for residents, saying he sometimes has to borrow a motorcycle to get to work at a highway toll booth or walk more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) through the mountains when he cannot, after the local public transportation driver disappeared in December.