Mexico City – The key pillars of the Trump administration policy towards Mexico involve large -scale deportations and a repression in the posters.
But the reports in the Mexican media suggest that the US authorities recently orchestrated the secret, cross -border movement of at least 17 relatives of the most notorious drug king in Mexico, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to California.
Several social media sites have circulated images that intend to show the bad suitcases of Kin Chapo Lugging Rolling while waiting to enter the United States last week at the San Ysidro border crossing that connect Tijuana and San Diego.
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Omar García Harfuch, Chief of Security of Mexico, confirmed that the measure took place.
He characterized the transfer of the relatives of El Chapo as part of a “negotiation” between the United States Department of Justice and the representatives of one of the children of El Chapo, Ovid Guzmán López, who faces drug smuggling and other positions in the Federal Court in Chicago.
Guzmán López was initially arrested in a 2019 operation that caused battles of weapons that paralyzed the city of Culiacán, which caused the then President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to order him released in an attempt to end violence. It was arrested in 2023 in a second bloody operation that left at least 29 dead, including 10 Mexican soldiers. Mexico extradated it to the United States in September 2023 to face drug trafficking charges.
He plans to change his guilt to guilty statement, according to judicial documents, but the terms of his possible guilt declaration agreement remain publicly unknown. A judicial hearing is scheduled for July 9 in a federal court in Chicago.
“As we saw in the news, Ovidos begins a negotiation with the Department of Justice of the United States and it is evident that, [with] His family goes to the United States, it is for that negotiation, “Garcia Harfuch told the radio formula of Mexico.
The current whereabouts of the relatives of El Chapo could not be determined. It was not clear if they were under some form of protective custody.
It has been speculated in Mexico that, in exchange for a reduced prison period and other concessions, Guzmán López could accept testifying for the government in drug cases. These “cooperation” agreements, experts say, routinely include protection for relatives of possible witnesses.
The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Monday that the reports had inspired her, learned about the move of news accounts, and that her government was looking for Clarifications from Washington.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, Nicole Navas, declined to comment. The New York headquarters of Guzmán López, Jeffrey Lichtman, did not return messages.
El Chapo, who was sentenced in 2019 for executing a vast network of drugs, is serving life imprisonment in a “Supermax” prison in Colorado.
The accounts about the relatives of El Chapo who enter San Diego originated with Luis Chaparro, a Mexican journalist who specializes in stories about the drug trafficker.
On Monday, citing “Fuentes”, Chaparro reported on his YouTube channel that 17 of El Chapo's relatives, including his ex -wife, several nephews and nephews, a grandson, a daughter and a son -in -law, entered the territory in San Ysidro around noon on May 9 and were received by the FBI agents. They carried more than $ 70,000 in cash, said Chaparro, who said that at least one sniper watched the group while delivering to the US authorities.
Among the group was Griselda López, the ex -wife of El Chapo and the mother of Ovid and her older brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, who is also in custody of the United States facing drug positions.
There has been a generalized speculation in the Mexican press that the two brothers can seek a guilt and possibly accept testifying against Ismael Zambada García, co -founder, with El Chapo, of the notorious poster of Sinaloa.
Zambada has said that he was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López in the summer and flew under the custody of American agents out of El Paso. According to reports, Zambada is in guilt negotiations with US authorities to avoid a possible death penalty.
His arrest has caused a bloody lawn war that divides the Sinaloa poster. Zambada sponsors are fighting the supporters of the children of El Chapo, known as Los Chapitos, for the control of the notorious organization. Two of the other children of El Chapo are fugitive who have remained in Mexico and avoided arrest and possible extradition to the United States.
Times Keegan Hamilton staff writer in Los Angeles and special correspondents Cecilia Sánchez Vidal and Liliana Nieto del Río in Mexico City contributed to this report.
