“It is up to our authority to stop them,” says Mexican president after US announcement of reward for children of ‘Chapo’ Guzmán

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said Thursday that it is up to his government to arrest the children of drug trafficker Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, after the announcement by the United States of a millionaire reward for their capture.

“If they are in national territory, it is up to our authority to stop them, no foreign force is allowed to act in this matter and in any other in our territory,” said López Obrador in his usual morning press conference.

A new executive order from Washington, issued Wednesday, offers $ 5 million for the arrest of each of Guzmán’s four children, as part of its strategy against international drug trafficking actors.

Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López, sons of “Chapo” – sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States – are part of a list of 25 targets related to the trafficking of synthetic opioids.

López Obrador recalled that in October 2019 he ordered the release of Ovidio Guzmán after an operation that had managed to capture him in Sinaloa, but that triggered the reaction of “a force majeure and the entire deployment” of the criminal group that put the population at risk.

“If we did well, if we did wrong, history will tell,” said the president.

In addition to the Guzmán, among the US targets (10 people and 15 groups) are the bands Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos – which emerged from a split in the Beltrán Leyva cartel – which are also identified as responsible for trafficking heroin to the United States.

López Obrador indicated that his US counterpart, Joe Biden, has not discussed this matter with him and affirmed that in Mexico “the intervention of foreign agents in operations is no longer allowed”.

He admitted, however, that “the United States government has every right to act.”

“Many Americans, more than 100,000, have lost their lives due to the consumption of these drugs, which are very dangerous, and that is why they made this decision,” said López Obrador.

Both countries activated a “new stage” in security cooperation on Tuesday after the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in October.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and US Ambassador Ken Salazar set up a “high-level group” that includes five task forces to address issues such as the fight and persecution of criminal groups that operate in the two countries.

Ebrard remarked that it is about “an alliance based on trust and mutual respect” called “bicentennial understanding” and that it leaves behind the so-called Merida Initiative.

At the end of November, a US federal court sentenced “Chapo’s” wife, Emma Coronel, to three years in prison for her participation in the powerful cartel led by her husband.

The war on drugs has been a recurring theme in the United States for decades, with mixed results compared to a business that moves billions of dollars. (I)