Borderland Beat
UPDATE From Prensa Libre Petén at bottom including Malcom Beith's weigh in via video:

Rumors swirled around social networks and publications today, regarding the possible death of Chapo Guzman in Petén, Guatemala.  My good sense says doubtful, but respected publications are reporting the unconfirmed death with that in mind I present this unconfirmed death report to you as written in Prensa Libre Petén.

GUATEMALA CITY - Interior Minister, Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, told reporters that there are research units working petenera area crime scene.

Lopez mentioned that an investigation will  be done with photographs, documents, and later in cooperation with biometric codices Mexican and U.S. agencies to "identify fully" in the case of Guzman.

"We cannot say it is him, but it could be,", referring to Guzman.

Official preliminary sources report that the confrontation occurred in San Martin community, the municipality of San Francisco, in the central area of ​​Petén. This community is located 70 km from  Flores, the main town of the department (state). .

In an interview with CNN in Spanish, the Secretary of Communication of the Presidency, Francisco Cuevas, confirmed the clash between two groups of drug traffickers who left between 2 and 3 victims, but did not confirm that one of the victims is El Chapo Guzman .

He added that the Ministry of Interior instructed the security forces to conduct a fingerprint identification of the victims.

Cuevas said the rumor that one of the dead is the Mexican drug lord  came from the residents indicating  they saw a person resembling the alleged Sinaloa drug cartel leader as one of the dead.

Guatemalan government officials indicated that the evidence was collected at the scene of the confrontation and then collated this information with Mexico, the spokesman said.

The News Agency reported that Guatemalan authorities’ vehicles and weapons found at the scene of the confrontation.

Hours before they knew about this confrontation, Prensa Libre published an article  in which the Mexican newspaper Excelsior cable revealed portal WikiLeaks leaked documents which mentioned that the Chapo Guzman took refuge in Guatemala.

Note from Chivis:

The following is the information released including the Wikileaks cable regarding Chapo's possible presence in Guatemala.  This was released days before today's rumored killing of Guzman:

An article published by Argentinian newspaper “El Comercial” on February 19, 2013, says that a part of the activities of the Sinaloa Cartel  are organized from Argentina, referring to a Stratfor mail sent in 2008.

The mail is based on conversations between the Stratfor employee and a source from the Mexican Foreign office.

The source explained to the Stratfor employee that the Cartel was present in Argentina at this time, and organizing from there its narco operations in Mexico. Argentinian authorities were aware of this situation, and were establishing a cooperation with Mexican services  in order to put an end to “El Chapo”‘s activities.

“El Chapo” is Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The article precises that “El Chapo” lived in Argentina in 2011 with his family, and probably organized a narco traffic business between Mexico, Argentina and Europe. He escaped just before his capture order was issued.  Link Here

 

The Sratfor analyst writes that:

“We believe el Chapo is currently hiding out in Peten, Guatemala near the Mexican border. Starting in about 2006, los Zetas and Sinaloa smashed the existing Guatemalan cartels in the north and took over. From 2004-2006 the Guatemalan military was reduced from 25,000-15,000. This was part of the peace accords.   A lot of these guys who lost their positions in the military went into police, a lot went into organized crime and a lot went to Mexico.  From there you could see the influx of the cartels…”

  Another article, published by Mexican newspaper Excelsior on February 17, 2013, says that “El Chapo” could hide in Guatemala. The article refers to another Stratfor mail, without precising the date, but gives the mail ID 1119580. The email can be read here dated 2/24/10  (English) Link Here

 

The mail highlights also how power games work in Guatemala. Both the mail and the Excelsior article mention “a lot of corruption involved”.

While it doesn’t look really surprising that the head of one of the biggest Latin American Cartels moves and travels into the continent, the question of his localization seems to be  important for the Latin America press.

 

The article explains also that, according to another mail, there is no relation between the Cartels and international terrorist groups.  Link Here

Another article, published in Univision on February 21, 2013, speaks also of the possible presence of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in Guatemala, linking to the Excelsior article and the files released by WikiLeaks: Link Here

UPDATE TO CHAPO KILLING STORY:

The Guatemalan government indicated at 23 hours on Thursday that "there is no indication in Petén clash between drug traffickers," despite hours before having confirmed such an incident, after which rumors emerged that one of the deceased could be Joaquin Chapo Guzman, whereupon forensic processes were underway to confirm the identity

MALCOLM BEITH (author of The Last Narco) speaks of the possible capture and "what if"
 

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