'El Chapo' Guzmán Seeks To Clean Up His Image With A Letter: “I Am Not Who The Media Says”

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Written from prison, one of Mexico's most famous drug traffickers wrote a letter. What does he say? Here we tell you all the details.

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, El Chapo, claims to be not who the media, the authorities and even his former colleagues say he was, or at least not as great before the murder of Cardinal Posadas, of which this Friday, May 24, the 31 years of commitment, he said from the super maximum security prison where he is located.

With no hope of ever seeing the light of day again, locked in a facility in the middle of the desert, the mythical leader of the Sinaloa cartel says the Mexican government used him as a scapegoat to blame someone for the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo , then archbishop of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, in Jalisco.

 Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo.

Jorge Carpizo and Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo

In a letter, translated and adapted by his lawyer, Mariel Colón Miró, sent to Judge Brian Cogan to request a new trial, El Chapo claims that that day, while he was heading to the beach, he was trapped in the middle of a crossfire.

While El Chapo was free, he was one of the drug traffickers who trafficked the most drugs according to the DEA.

“That day, May 24, 1993, Mr. Guzmán arrived at the Guadalajara airport to go to the beach. He parked his car and got out to look for his suitcases in the trunk. When he opened the trunk of his car to unload his things, another car arrived and parked right next to Mr. Guzmán's car. While Mr. Guzmán was unloading his luggage, he heard gunshots very close to him.”

“Mr. Guzmán realized that some men were shooting at the car that was next to him. People in the parking lot began to run, including Mr. Guzmán, who left his belongings behind him to look for somewhere to hide. Mr. Guzmán's identification was also left behind in the parking lot. “The Mexican government took advantage of that and took Mr. Guzmán’s identification so they would have someone to blame.”

According to El Chapo, the next day, the legend was born. The Mexican government spread the story of Guzmán Loera like wildfire as one of the great leaders of Mexican drug trafficking. That the cardinal had been shot dead after a confrontation between Arellano Félix hitmen and Chapo himself.

“One day before that event, Mr. Guzmán didn’t even exist for the Mexican government. But the next day everything changed.” According to Colón, the US government then began to fabricate a narrative around El Chapo.

“Later the United States government also began a negative campaign against Mr. Guzmán and gave him negative publicity. There was too much bad information in the media that made Mr. Guzmán look too big, they had to arrest him because society could not understand how Mr. Guzmán was still free. “The government had to stop him so as not to look bad to the public.”

Lawyer Colón even recalled that during his testimony, Vicente Zambada Niebla, El Vicentillo, assured that the governments of Mexico and the United States inflated the profile of El Chapo Guzmán, during his testimony when questioned by Eduardo Balarezo, Guzmán's former representative.

Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo

Eduardo Balarezo: “—But you know that Chapo didn't kill him, right?—”

Vicente Zambada: “—That's what I said yesterday, that he didn't kill him.”

EB: “—The Arellano Félix mob murdered Cardinal Ocampo.”

VZ: “—Yes sir.”

EB: “—And you know, again, from living in Mexico at that time and from being in the business at that time that before the assassination of Cardinal Ocampo, for the most part the Mexican public had no idea who Chapo was. , True?"

VZ: “—Yes, sir.”

EB: “—And it was only when the media made them known that Chapo came to the spotlight.”

VZ: “—Yes sir.”

For more than three decades, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán inaugurated 'narco tunnels' to bypass walls and police officers. 

In January 2017, in a memorandum requesting preventive detention for El Chapo, the US government admitted that as a result of the battle for key points for drug trafficking such as Tijuana, it led to conflicts between cartels.

One of those battles was between the Arellano Félix and the Sinaloa cartel, with El Chapo and Ismael El Mayo Zambada García at the helm.

What does El Chapo's letter say? 

“This conflict led to the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo in 1993 during a shootout at the airport in Guadalajara, Mexico. As a result of this murder, the Mexican government carried out its first nationwide manhunt against Guzmán, who, although he initially evaded capture by escaping to Guatemala, was eventually apprehended in 1993,” the US government stated.

One of the biggest battles that El Chapo Guzmán faced was against the Arellano Félix.

Finally, Mariel Colón said that the U.S. government also fabricated a case against El Chapo Guzmán. That his extradition from Mexico was illegal and that even the communications interceptions with which the Mexican was arrested during the trial against him were false.

"To arrest him, the U.S. government fabricated a case against Mr. Guzman, using servers located in the Netherlands and also with a software called "FlexiSpy software. They committed fraud, lied and kidnapped him in the Eastern District of New York, violating extradition law," concluded Colón.

 The Mexican Armed Forces were responsible for recapturing El Chapo. 

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