On Thursday, some armed men cruelly took hostages, burned vehicles, and stormed an airport in northern Mexico after the federal forces captured one of the world’s most wanted cartel leaders Ovidio Guzmán, and also the son of notorious drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán.
Mexican Secretary of Defense Luis Cresencio Sandoval González said that the 33-year-old drug lord was arrested after a fight in a town north of the city of Culiacán predawn gunfight, a stronghold of Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel. Even tho as the cartel where mounting attacks across the state, the air force was able to fly Guzmán to Mexico City.
The officials canceled flights, suspended school, and ordered the residents to shelter in place as the cartel members threw up road blockades in multiple cities, killing one and injuring at least 25 security forces. In Culiacán, Sandoval said cartel fighters blocked all of the six entrances to the city and attacked a commercial airport and a nearby air force base. Officials said, at least one commercial flight and an air force plane were hit by gunfire.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador eventually ordered Guzmán’s release to avoid more bloodshed. He said that you can’t value the life of a delinquent over the lives of the people.
Millions of Mexicans and U.S. law enforcement personnel were mad about the bungled operation, they said this has humiliated federal forces and set a dangerous precedent.
Pérez Ricart said the figure of Ovidio Guzmán has been hanging over the consciousness of every Mexican ever since. Finally capturing that person today is important from a material standpoint, but more than anything, it’s very important symbolically.
The first trip to the country by U.S. President Biden, since 2014 came days before a scheduled visit to Mexico, the recapture of Guzmán.
Later on, the president said Cienfuegos would not face charges in Mexico and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was accused of fabricating a lawsuit against him.
That particular incident, along with López Obrador’s decision to end the bi-national security pact known as the Mérida Initiative, has outraged U.S. law enforcement officials.
Despite those tensions between them, López Obrador’s administration has delivered constantly on one key U.S. priority: the arrest of high-profile drug kingpins.
In July of last year, just days after the great López Obrador met with Biden at the White House, Mexican forces arrested Rafael Caro Quintero, a cartel member that is believed to be behind the killing of U.S. DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.
A human rights professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico named Jorge Israel said on Twitter that López Obrador was cleaning the house before Biden arrives.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that the United States issued an extradition request for Guzmán several years ago, but the Guzmán they requested may be tried for drug trafficking charges in Mexico.
The Infamous Drug Lord Ovidio Guzmán Who Used Innovative Smuggling Techniques
One of the 10 children of El Chapo is Ovidio Guzmán, the infamous drug lord who used innovative smuggling techniques on how he turned the Sinaloa drug cartel into one of the most dangerous and powerful criminal organizations in the world.
He became famous after escaping from Mexican prison twice, in 2017 El Chapo was extradited to the U.S. and was found guilty on 10 charges including money laundering and drug trafficking.
By the end of Thursday, Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya said that the authorities had already regained control of the state that was in chaos. Their crews had begun cleaning the remains of vehicles that are burned out, and local police sought to stop the looters from raiding their local stores.
Early Thursday, Vizcarra had been reporting on the violence when gunmen took hold of his car. He ended up at a Culiacán hotel along with the other civilians, where the gunmen, he said, that they are taking more keys to burn more cars.
By the early afternoon, with Guzmán already in the territory of Mexico, Vizcarra was allowed to go and he returned home.
