CONCORDIA, Mexico — Far up in the coastal mountains above the beautiful Pacific resort of Mazatlan, villages along a winding road look almost empty. The only sound is the sound of trucks going by every now and then.
Ten workers from a Canadian-owned silver and gold mine were kidnapped in late January in one of these communities, Panuco. Five victims were found nearby, and five more are still waiting to be identified.
Fermín Labrador, 68, from the adjoining village of Chirimoyos, claimed that most people who live in these areas had left because two groups of the Sinaloa Cartel have been fighting since September 2024. He added that some people were "invited" to leave.
The kidnapping of the mine workers, which is still not fully understood, has caused terror in the area and prompted questions about the security enhancements that President Claudia Sheinbaum has talked about. After she entered office in late 2024, she showed that she was going to be tougher on drug gangs in Sinaloa by making arrests and seizing drugs. It has been a year since she dispatched 10,000 National Guard troops to the northern border to try to stop U.S. tariffs on fentanyl trafficking by the cartels, most of which comes from Sinaloa.
Sheinbaum used the fact that the number of murders dropped sharply last year as proof that her security plan was succeeding in January.
Security expert David Saucedo said, "These kinds of events destroy the federal government's story that they are slowly gaining control of the situation." He added that Sheinbaum had sought to "manage the conflict" while the Sinaloa Cartel's internal war grew and split the state by forcing citizens to "take a side with one of the two groups."
Fleeting security
In late January, the mine workers went missing, which led to extra troops being sent to the highlands to look for them from the air and on the ground.
Omar García Harfuch, Mexico's Security Secretary, came to organize the operation. Several people were arrested, and the police were able to find the secret graves thanks to information they got from the accused.
But the extra security has not made people feel safer.
Roque Vargas, a human rights campaigner for individuals who have been forced to leave their homes because of violence in the neighborhood, claimed that "all of the hubbub has scattered the organized crime guys," but he is worried they would come back. He and others are also worried that when they leave their village, security forces may think they're evil men and assault them. This has happened in other parts of the state.
"We've almost been left behind," he remarked.
Cartel infighting triggered violence
Sheinbaum became president in October 2024, when Sinaloa was going through another wave of violence after the kidnapping of Sinaloa Cartel boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada by a son of former cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Zambada was given to the U.S. government, and his part of the cartel fought with Guzmán's sons' part.
At first, people in the state capital of Culiacan were caught in the crossfire, but the fighting gradually spread across the whole state. Last year, Donald Trump became president of the United States and named the Sinaloa Cartel and other groups as international terrorist organizations. This put more pressure on Sheinbaum's government to go strong on the cartels.
In April of last year, Vizsla Silver Corp., the mine's owner in Vancouver, Canada, said it was shutting down operations at the mine due of safety issues in the area. The break lasted for a month.
García Harfuch stated last month that the people who were arrested were members of the Sinaloa Cartel branch that supports Guzmán's kids, who are known as "los Chapitos." They thought the workers were part of the other faction. Since Vizsla reported the workers were pulled from their site, there hasn't been an explanation for how the mix-up may have happened.
Mines and crime
Organized crime in Mexico has historically targeted mines, avocado plantations, and gas pipelines as places to steal or extort money from people who work there.
Saucedo, who has looked at incidents in Guanajuato, Sinaloa, and Sonora, said he has also seen examples when mines use armed groups to keep people from opposing them.
There have been no reports to the Mexican authorities that Vizsla was extorted. Sheinbaum added that her government would communicate to all of Mexico's mining businesses "to give them the help they need."
The Associated Press sent Vizsla questions by email, but the company did not respond. However, it has emphasized in statements that its major goal is to find the remaining workers and help the families of those who were affected. Family members of one of the workers didn't want to talk.
Search for the missing
Marisela Carrizales stood next to signs with pictures of missing individuals in the El Verde neighborhood, which is in the foothills between the beach and the mountains. A police car blocked the route that led to a place where hidden graves were found. The town nearby was quiet.
Carrizales, who is part of one of the many search groups that have formed around Mexico to look for the missing, said, "I'm here waiting for answers." She has been seeking for her son Alejandro for 5 1/2 years. She came to El Verde with more than 20 other people who were also looking for lost family members to keep an eye on the authorities' efforts and ask them to assist them look in other regions as well. "We know there are a lot more graves here... we have to come look for them."
In the first week of March, investigators found a hidden grave here, and then they found several in the days that followed. The Attorney General's office reported that 10 bodies were located in one place, and five of them have been named as the missing mining workers. The Sinaloa state prosecutor's office did say, meanwhile, that other remains were located in four different grave sites throughout the community.
A lot of people are missing. In October, a Mexican tourist was seized from a bar in Mazatlan. A businessman went missing in January. Six other Mexican visitors were kidnapped from a fancy portion of the vacation city in March. Later, a woman and a girl from that group were recovered alive outside the city, but the men who were with them have not been seen.
Vargas stated that while the government has stepped up security in Mazatlan in preparation for the carnival, many villages in the highlands are not getting teachers, doctors, or even transportation because they are scared.
The man from Chirimoyos, Labrador, claimed that when he is lucky, he borrows a friend's motorcycle to get to his job at a toll booth on the highway. He has to trek more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) across the mountains when he can't borrow it. This is because the person who ran the local public transit service went missing in December.
