This archive report was first published on 17 November 2019.
On October 17, 2019, the city of Culiacán in Sinaloa State, Mexico, was plunged into chaos as the Sinaloa cartel responded to an operation to capture Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo.
Local reporter Ernesto Martínez, who had been covering crime in the region for 21 years, described the scene as 'the worst shootout and the most horrible situation I have ever encountered.'
As Mexican soldiers arrived at Guzmán López's door, the city was already burning. The situation would only worsen as Sinaloa cartel soldiers traded machine-gun fire with security forces, trapping civilians and cutting off police reinforcements.
Young girls in their school uniforms ducked for cover as gunmen with gas cans threatened to burn them to the ground. Pickup trucks outfitted with.50 caliber machine guns closed down thoroughfares, leaving families huddled in fear.
The operation to capture Guzmán López was a planned response to his escape from a previous raid. However, like his father before him, Guzmán López managed to evade capture, embarrassing the Mexican government once again.
The Times's visual investigations team reconstructed the chaotic events of October 17 in Culiacán from video footage shot by those who lived through it – civilians, soldiers, and cartel gunmen.
Our reporters in Mexico tracked the steps that led to the botched raid and the increasing questions about the government's ability to combat the spiraling violence.
