Mexico City, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) says the arrest of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán’s children continues to be a priority for the government.
During a morning press conference, AMLO said “there is no impunity for anyone and there is nothing like there was before,” after the United States announced a $5 million USD reward for their capture.
López Obrador stated that the reward being offered by the United States government for the children of El Chapo Guzmán is a reaction from the Joe Biden government, who is concerned about the many people dying due to the consumption of synthetic drugs.
“This is what we reported (yesterday), that they were going to make this resolution of the United States government known, considering these people as criminals for the United States government and offering rewards.
“It is a list of suspected criminals from the sale of drug trafficking, in this case, with synthetic drugs of fentanyl. There is concern by the U.S. government because many Americans have lost their lives, more than 100,000, due to the consumption of these drugs and that is why they made this decision,” he explained.
AMLO said that if El Chapo Guzmán’s children are in Mexico, it is up to Mexican authorities to arrest them since foreign authorities are not allowed to operate inside the country, noting “it would be a violation of the sovereignty of our country.”
López Obrador said that there was never any claim by former U.S. president Donald Trump for the release of Ovidio Guzmán, a son of El Chapo, during the failed operation in Culiacán, Sinaloa when Ovidio was arrested and set free.
“No, that was a very special circumstance. It was an operation that was not carried out well, with very few personnel, without supporting those who went to the arrest, so there was a strong reaction from criminals. They detained civilians, detained the military, there were attacks on army housing, they barricaded themselves with high-caliber weapons,” he said.
The President of Mexico reiterated that he made the decision to release Ovidio Guzmán. “There was going to be a confrontation with many deaths and it was decided to stop the operation. We did not want more people to lose their lives.
“There was an estimate of more than 200 deaths, so we made the decision to stop the operation. If we did well or we did wrong, history will tell. I was the one who made the decision to stop the operation.”
The US State Department is offering $5 million USD for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Mexicans Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López, sons of El Chapo Guzmán.
“All four are high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel and each is subject to a federal indictment for their involvement in illicit drug trafficking,” the State Department noted.
Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera, former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was extradited from Mexico to the United States on January 19, 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment on July 17, 2019 in a Federal Court in New York. He is currently serving his sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
