Mexican Culiacan - A group of veterinarians climbed onto heavy metal crates Tuesday morning and loaded them one by one into a bunch of semi-trucks. In cargo: tigers, monkeys, jaguars, elephants and lions - all escaped the latest wave of cartel violence, eclipsing Culiacan, a Mexican city in northern Mexico.
For years, cartel members and exotic pets of circus animals have lived in a small animal shelter in the outskirts of the Sinaloa capital. However, a bloody struggle broke out between rival Sinaloa cartel factions last year, plunging the region into unprecedented violence and lifting the leaders of Ostoke Shelter from armed attacks, ongoing death threats, ongoing death threats and the basic supply needed to keep its 700 animals alive.
Aid groups are now leaving Culiacan and transporting animals to the state for hours, hoping they will bear the brunt. However, the widespread popularity of combat in the region has caused many people to worry that it will inevitably catch up.
"We have never seen violence," said Ernesto Zazueta, president of Ostoke Shelter. "We are worried that the animals coming here will have a better future."
Eight months ago, violence in the city exploded when the two rival Sinaloa Cartel factions began to fight for territory. After the son of the infamous Capo Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán dramatically kidnapped the leaders of one of the groups, he then delivered him to the U.S. authorities via a private jet.
Since then, fierce fighting between armed factions has become the new normal for civilians of the Curiaci, Culiacan has avoided Mexico’s worst violence for many years, in large part because Sinaloa Cartel has maintained such complete control.
"As the war between the two factions of Sinaloa Cartel escalated, they began to extort, kidnap and Rob cars because they needed funds to fund the war," said security analyst David Saucedo. "The civilians of the Curiachi are the people who suffered."
Their flights from the city are another sign of how far the war has penetrated into daily life, says Zazueta.
Asylum personnel loaded the roaring animals on the convoy this week as some coaches tried to soothe animals. One murmured in a soft voice, feeding a bag of carrots in the transport container, “I’m going to be here, no one will do anything to you.”
Accompanied by the Mexican National Guard, the veterinarians and animals began to follow the highway to the seafront Mazatlan, where they planned to release the animals to another wildlife sanctuary.
The relocation was a few months after planning and training animals, which was the action of the organization's desperate action. They say the sanctuary was caught in the war's exchange of fire, as it was with the town of Jesús María, the stronghold of Los Chapitos, one of the warring factions.
During times of intense violence, shelter staff could hear the sound of gunfire echoing nearby, and the roar of cars and helicopters overhead, which they said scared the animals. Cartel regularly blocks staff from reaching the shelter, and some animals have stopped eating for a few days. Zazueta said many people began to lose their fur, and at least two animals died from the situation.
The fact that complicates things is that more and more animals are former Narco pets abandoned in rural areas of the state. In one case, a Bengal tiger was found bound in the square at the center of the gunfight. The city legend circulated in Sinaloa, Capos fed the enemy to the pet lion.
Asylum staffer Diego García was one of the people who went to rescue the animals. He said he often receives anonymous threats, with callers claiming to know his address and how to find him. He fears he will be deprived of Capos' former pet. Zazueta said the shelter also received calls to burn the shelter to the ground and kill the animals when there is no payment.
"Now, there is no safe place in this city," Garcia said.
This is what many people in a city feel like. When the sun rises, parents check the news of the gunfight, as if the weather is the case, to determine whether it is safe to send their children to school. Burned houses sat in bullets, occasionally corpses hung from outside the city on bridges. By night, Culiacan became a ghost town, leaving bars and clubs closed and many people had no jobs.
"My son, my son, I'm here. I won't leave you alone." A mother screamed, crying on the roadside, cursing officials, who examined their son's body, which was stuffed with bullet shells on Monday night. "Why didn't the police do anything?" she cried.
In February, García said he was forced from a car with an armed, masked man from an SUV. At the muzzle, they stole the trucks, vegetarian medicine and tools the group used to rescue and made him tremble on the side of the road.
The breaking point of Ostoke Shelter was in March when Bireki, one of the two elephants, was injured. Veterinarians scramble to find an expert to treat her in Mexico, the United States and beyond. No one will bravely go to the Kuriaka people.
"We asked ourselves, 'What are we doing here?'" Zazueta said. "We can't risk this happening again. Who would treat them if we don't leave?"
Security analyst Saucedo said many were concerned that Mexico’s crackdown on cartels would be encountered by criminal organizations’ more violent movement.
Zazueta accused local governments and security forces of not doing more and said it had sought help over the past eight months.
Sinaloa's governor's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The shelter does not have any publicly announced actions, fearing they may face the influence of local officials or the same cartel that forced them to flee, but they hope the animals will find some relief in Mazatlan after years of conflict.
Sanctuary staff García is not sure. Although he hopes to achieve the best, he says he also sees cartel violence spreading like cancer in Latin American countries. Mazatlan is also facing an outbreak of violence, although nothing compared to the capital of Sinaloa.
"It's at least more stable," he said. "Because here, today, it's just suffocating."
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Associated Press video photographer Fernanda Pesce contributed to the report in Culiacan, Mexico.
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