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A small group of demonstrators forced their way into the offices of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha and damaged the premises while calling for his resignation according to AP News. State spokesman Feliciano Castro said “We understand people’s outrage” and noted that federal authorities had opened an investigation into the killings. The march drew mothers accompanied by children in school uniforms highlighting widespread fear over the months of clashes that have upended daily life in the state capital.
The brothers Gael and Alexander Sarmiento along with their father were shot dead on the preceding Sunday when armed men attempted to steal their vehicle AP News reported. Organizers from the civic group Culiacan Valiente urged a return to in-person schooling only once authorities could guarantee student safety. Protesters carried banners and dressed in white as they moved through downtown areas to demand that streets be reclaimed from criminal groups.
The killings occurred against the backdrop of a turf war within the Sinaloa Cartel that erupted after U.S. authorities arrested Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons the previous year according to a New York Times assessment. Milenio’s review of Uppsala University project data placed 965 deaths across 11 states in 2025 at the hands of the Sinaloa Cartel with 70 percent tied to the internal dispute between the Chapitos and Mayos factions concentrated in municipalities including Culiacan Navolato Elota and Mazatlan. The conflict has driven monthly homicide counts in the state to an average of 150 since it began in September 2024.
SESNSP figures show Sinaloa registered 1732 intentional homicides in 2025 up from 1022 the year before marking a sharp deterioration while most of the country improved. Latinometrics analysis found national homicide victims fell to 23609 in 2025 a 21.5 percent decline from 2024 with the downward trend accelerating into 2026. The Institute for Economics and Peace reported that Sinaloa posted one of the largest single-year drops in peacefulness on record even as the national daily homicide average halved between September 2024 and mid-2026.
President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has dispatched thousands of National Guard troops to Sinaloa and carried out nearly 900 arrests in the state since October 2024 according to government statements. The broader crackdown has included seizures of nearly as much fentanyl in a five-month span as in the entire prior year plus the closure of hundreds of clandestine laboratories. By July 2026 the daily homicide average in Sinaloa had fallen to 3.3 from a peak of 6.9 the previous June SESNSP data indicated.
Gunbattles have erupted even in central and upscale districts of Culiacan forcing many parents to keep children at home and prompting schools to adopt online formats AP News reported. Residents have described near-daily shootings and roadblocks that have curtailed normal activity in the city. Similar marches have taken place in the months following the initial protest as communities continue pressing for sustained security improvements in the cartel stronghold.
