Residents in Mexico's Culiacan march for peace to bring attention to waves of violence

Описание: (22 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Culiacán, Mexico - 22 February 2026
1. Relatives of Ricardo Mizael
2. Ricardo Mizael's relatives hug each other
3. A sign that reads "We want safe streets, our children's lives are not negotiable"
4. Musicians play before the demonstration begin
5. Various Demonstration
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Víctor Aispuro , teacher:
"This is an insensitive government, a government that is not with the people. They have learned to lament and apologize, but they haven't learned to deliver results. We want them to make decisions, but at the same time, we want them to achieve the goal of restoring peace to Sinaloa and ensuring that no more children die."
7. Various demonstration
8. A patrol car moves forward while people shout "get out" at it.
9. Various demonstration
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Vivi Santana, activist:
"Today we have a heavily militarized city where children are still being killed, where people are still disappearing, and where the economy is being weakened in all our homes."
11. Various Demonstration
12. A young woman with her cat at the protest
STORYLINE:
Locals took to the streets of the capital of western Mexico’s Sinaloa state to march for peace on Sunday.

The protest in Culiacán was organized by family and friends of Ricardo Mizael, a 15-year-old boy shot and killed in a neighborhood in the northeast of the city.

Authorities believe the crime was a case of mistaken identity by an armed group.

The protest was joined by mothers searching for their missing loved ones and relatives of disappeared persons.

Animal rights groups also participated as Ricardo Mizael was on his way to buy a bottle and milk for a kitten he had just rescued.

Protester Víctor Aispuro is the principal of Sócrates Elementary School, one of the oldest in the city and the school attended by brothers Gael and Alexander, who were murdered more than a year ago in the same neighborhood where Ricardo Mizael was killed.

Aispuro led the first major demonstration against violence in Culiacán, particularly to demand justice for the children who have been victims of homicide in the city's ongoing violence.

"This is an insensitive government, a government that is not with the people. They have learned to lament and apologize, but they haven't learned to deliver results," he said.

President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October 2024, when Sinaloa was entering a new spiral of violence following the abduction of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada by a son of former cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Zambada was handed over to U.S. authorities and his faction of the cartel went to war with the faction led by Guzmán’s sons.

Initially, residents of the state capital, Culiacan, were caught in the crossfire, but the conflict eventually extended statewide.

AP video by Aarón Ibarra.

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