By Roger Lanse

A Christian missionary, Leonard Smith, supported by Bible Baptist Church here in Silver City, who was born in Mexico and has lived in Culiacan for many years, reported on the violence there last week. The following is an excerpt from his email.

“Our people are ok. One of our men, from the village of Limon de los Ramos, who works at a toll gate north of the city, was detained, along with other workers, by the cartel guys. No harm was done, and they were let go after several hours. The city has never seen anything like this. The cartels sent a loud message – we are in charge. Within a couple of hours after Chapo’s son was detained, the cartel had all of downtown blocked, all roads leading in and out of the city controlled with cars and trucks on fire, several major intersections blocked with trucks, busses on fire, they attacked the state police headquarters, the prison, where 55 men escaped (4 of them have been caught) and they also attacked the military base . . . And, most importantly, they had the houses of high military brass, and politicians surrounded and sent the message, let the boy go or your families die. So, they let the boy go. Government was totally unprepared for such a huge organized response to the arrest of Chapo’s son.

“The purpose of the violence was terror, not a massacre. They had enough firepower to kill thousands. .50 caliber guns, military grade machine guns, etc. . . a handful were killed . . . so very thankful more were not killed.

“We go out every week to an area in the hills controlled by the cartel. We are cautiously optimistic to be able to continue to do so. We trust the Lord for protection. He has never let us down.”