“No one else is in our shoes,” she said, explaining that she hid in her kitchen with her daughter during the terrifying clash. “What about us, the families of the soldiers who were here alone while our husbands were out there battling against them? Aren’t our lives worth something, too?”

Many here argue that if Mr. Guzmán López had not been released, the aftermath would have been much worse. Officials say at least 14 people died during the shootouts, but neither state nor federal authorities were able to confirm by Sunday that 14 dead was the final toll.

“It was a bad strategy for the government to go after him without a better plan, but it was the right call to let him go after the reaction,” said Brenda Medina, a waitress at a small restaurant next to where a shootout erupted in the commercial district of Tres Ríos. “We would still be hiding from the bullets back in the kitchen if they hadn’t let him go.”

Carlos Camacho was working at a gas station when a gun battle broke out just a few feet away, forcing him and dozens of other people to hide in a small storage room near the back of the building. The firefight was so intense that police officers begged for water and said they had run out of ammunition, witnesses said.