Mexico City, October 20 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The massive and violent hunt for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has left a trail of death, enforced disappearances, homes and vehicles of innocent people torched or riddled with bullets, various communities completely desolate and about 300 displaced people, while the federal government scrambles to explain what is going on in the mountainous region that is the Sinaloa cartel leader's stronghold.

But not only that, it has left a trail of complicity that exposes corruption at the “highest levels” of government, according to Mexican journalist and organized crime writer Anabel Hernandez. 

There are too many dubious actions and there are too many questions that remain unanswered because more than likely there is no proper response to actions that only make things harder for the government to explain in a credible way. 

Victims and witnesses of the attacks by marines in Tamazula, Durango, said the federal forces claim they shot at their homes because they were been fire on.

However, Marta Marbella and Francisca Quintero told AFP that it is absolutely false that anybody was shooting at the marines.

Quintero said El Chapo was nowhere to be seen, much less in her home, and yet, “it rained bullets for around an hour on my house,” forcing her to find safe place for her and her three children. In all, the neighbors all confirm that the only ones shooting were the marines and they were doing it on innocent people.

Hernandez said that intelligence sources told her that at least three people have been detained in the supposed manhunt against Guzman, which was finally acknowledged Oct. 17 after almost a month of violently and indiscriminately attacking communities up in the Sierra Madre in an area known as the Golden Triangle between the states of Durango, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, which is widely controlled by the Sinaloa cartel.

Last week, Julio “El Tio” Martinez, a source close to El Chapo, told teleSUR that, “They say they are looking for him (El Chapo) in Tamazula, and sure these are regions that are controlled by him and his family and associates, but he has actually not been there recently,” the drug cartel member said.

“As you've heard, the Mexican marines have raided various communities in Tamazula near Sinaloa shooting at homes and at people with no reason. But this is what they do, they are abusive and when they are caught committing atrocities, they fabricate stories. No reason for El Chapo to go anywhere else for now other than his home region,” El Tio said.