Mexico's president bans press from his trip to oversee construction of road in El Chapo's hometown in Sinaloa a year after he was filmed greeting the jailed drug lord's mother last year
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has banned the press from joining him on his upcoming visit to Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's hometown to inspect the ongoing construction of a highway.
The leftist president sparked controversy in March 2020 when he last visited Badiraguato, Sinaloa, and was filmed exchanging pleasantries with the jailed drug lord's mother, María del Consuelo Loera.
The decision to ban the press from López Obrador's official visit was announced Monday night by the Office of the Presidency.
'People from the Center for Production of Informative and Special Programs will not be present, nor will photographers of President López Obrador,' it said in a statement.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will not be allowing the press to be present when he makes an official appearance Friday in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, the hometown of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, to inspect the construction of a highway. His last trip to Badiraguato on March 29, 2020, was marred by controversy when he was captured in a video shaking hands with El Chapo's mother, María del Consuelo Loera
María del Consuelo Loera, the mother of El Chapo, has in the past sought help from Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to obtain a humanitarian visa to visit her jailed son in the United States and has asked the leftist leader to bring him back to the country so that he can serve his life sentence there
López Obrador is set to embark on his four-day tour of Sinaloa on Friday where he will meet with security officials in the state capital of Michoacán and partake in his daily press conference before heading to Badiraguato later in the day.
A 30-second video that was posted on Twitter showed the Mexican leader walking up to a SUV that El Chapo's mother was traveling in on March 29, 2020.
Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán is serving a life sentence in a super maximum facility prison in Colorado
'I'll greet you, don't come out,' López Obrador could be heard telling Loera while she sat on the front passenger side of the vehicle that was parked on a dirt road.
'Don't come out,' he continued, adding, 'I already received your letter.'
The note that President López Obrador was referring to was part of a petition made by the 93-year-old in which she requested his intervention in bringing El Chapo back to Mexico to serve his life sentence in his native country instead of in the super maximum facility prison in Colorado.
' … It is clear that my son was illegally handed over to the government of the United States of America,' Loera wrote in the letter. 'Nothing would make me and my family happier to see him where he should be, in a jail in Mexico.'
Emma Coronel, who is married to Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, was arrested in February at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. She acknowledged last month to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire
López Obrador defended his interaction with the mother of the Sinaloa Cartel's co-founder, stating, 'I still don't know a mother who accepts her son's guilt. She told me that she has not seen him in five years and that she does not want to die without seeing him and asks me for support to see him and I will take of the process. This I would do for any human being.'
In 2019, López Obrador played a role is assisting Loera and her daughters, Armida Guzmán Loera and Bernarda Guzmán Loera, obtain visas in order to visit El Chapo.
However, he is only permitted to received meet in-person with his twin daughters he has with his jailed wife, Emma Coronel, and his legal team.
María del Consuelo Loera, the mother of El Chapo, exits the United States embassy in Mexico City on June 1, 2019. Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assisted her and her two daughters in obtaining humanitarian visas to visit the jailed drug lord at a super maximum jail in Colorado
López Obrador was widely criticized in June 2020 when he admitted he ordered the military to release El Chapo's son, Ovidio Guzmán, during an October 2019 operation because hundreds of innocent lives were at stake.
'The decision was made when it was decided not to put the population at risk so that civilians were not affected because more than 200 people would lose their lives if we did not suspend the operation in Culiacán,' López Obrador said.
Mexican security forces got wind of Ovidio Guzmán's location the afternoon of October 17, 2019 after officials in Washington pushed for his extradition to shut down the Sinaloa Cartel's alleged fentanyl trafficking to the United States.
El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison by a New York federal court in February 2019.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was blasted on Twitter for greeting El Chapo's mother on March 29, 2020 while visiting the jailed drug lord's hometown of Badiraguato
U.S. prosecutors estimate Sinaloa Cartel capo built a $14 billion fortune that he made off of cocaine, marijuana and heroin sales during his 25 years at the helm of the international criminal enterprise.
Coronel was arrested in February at Dulles International Airport in Virginia acknowledged last month to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire.
She pleaded guilty to three federal offenses as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. The charges include knowingly and willfully conspiring to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine for several years. She also pleaded guilty to a money-laundering conspiracy charge and to engaging in transactions with a foreign narcotics trafficker.