Mexico – A bitter public conflict between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and New York lawyer representing a drug son, drug lepin, “El Chapo” Guzmán, has shown speculation here that the scion of the research of transactions of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel OnTime could expose corrupt Mexican civil servants.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that she had filed a defamation complaint in Mexico against Jeffrey Lichtman, the high -level lawyer representing Ovidio Guzmán López, who pleaded guilty to the Federal Court in Chicago to fentanyl traffic and other crimes. He agreed to cooperate with American prosecutors in order to reduce a potential life sentence.
In the comments after the court hearing, Lichtman described the repeated statements of Sheinbaum as Washington to “absurd” that Washington should coordinate with Mexico on the case – especially if, as expected, Guzmán López overturns beans on alleged ties between Mexican officials and cartels.
In an incendiary article on X, Litchman attacked the “corrupt office and the government” of the Mexican chief and accused that Sheinbaum “acts more as the branch of public relations of a drug trafficking organization than as the honest chief that the Mexican people deserves”.
This sparked a burst of denunciations from the Allies in the power block of Sheinbaum, which dominates Mexican policy.
Ernestina Godoy Ramos, Sheinbaum’s official lawyer, qualified Lichtman’s comments “grotesque and unforgivable, breaking the ethical and legal limits of the profession”.
Declared Sheinbaum: “I will not establish a dialogue with a lawyer for [a] Narco-Trafficker. “”
Lichtman also represented El Chapo – now serving a perpetuity imprisonment in an American prison in Colorado – and is the lawyer for Joaquín Guzmán López, another son of the drug lord. Like his brother, he is in police custody and faces the smuggling of drugs and other charges.
The sons of El Chapo, known as the name The chapitosOr the “little chapos”, assumed the responsibility for the cartel’s relations after the arrest of their father in 2016, according to the prosecutors. Guzmán López was extradited to the United States in 2023 after being caught following a shooting outside Culiacán, the capital of the state of Sinaloa, which left nearly two dozen deaths, including 10 Mexican soldiers. According to US officials from El Chapo, two other sons of El Chapo.
Behind the villains between the New York lawyer and The president is a widespread sense here that Guzmán López is about to give a mound of dirt on Mexican politicians on the wage bill of the Sinaloa cartel. He may have already done it.
What do you ask other political observers could explain the special treatment that El Chapo’s family members received in the spring?
In May, the American authorities escorted 17 members of the extended family of El Chapo – including his ex -wife, the mother of Ovidio and Joaquín – in San Diego de Tijuana. Although the United States Ministry of Justice refused to comment, the first official of the law enforcement of Mexico said that this decision was probably part of a cooperation agreement between Guzmán López and Washington.
“He [Ovidio] Must sing, “said Guillermo Valdés Castellanos, a former intelligence chief in the administration of former president Felipe Calderón, a political opponent of Sheinbaum.” I think that is part of a very clear strategy of the government of Donald Trump to put pressure on Mexico … to act against the deep ties between organized crime and Mexican policy. »»
While doing the frequent bliss of Sheinbaum, Trump denounced “the intolerable alliance” between the government of Mexico and organized crime. Trump imposed punishing prices in Mexico in what he calls an effort to close fentanyl traffic.
Although the criticisms called the characterizations of exaggerated Trump, the Narco-Governmental collaboration in Mexico dates back decades.
The highest security official of Calderón, Genaro García Luna, was found guilty of having taken millions of dollars in bribes of the Sinaloa cartel and purges a sentence of 38 years in American prison.
Sheinbaum and his political mentor, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, praised the American prosecutions of García Luna – a case that has exposed a deep corruption among their political rivals. But the tables can now turn.
There was no public disclosure on what Guzmán López could secretly reveal to American prosecutors. But speculations in Mexico have focused on the alleged twisted of the so-called Narco-Governors serving under the banner of the dominant Morena political block of Sheinbaum. None were billed.
But even more explosive, say the experts, it would be new allegations against López Obrador, the predecessor of Sheinbaum and the founder of Morena. During his six -year mandate, López Obrador repeatedly denied unconfirmed reports to have received political donations from people related to organized crime.
According to all accounts, any public dissemination of new accusations against López Obrador from the American authorities could trigger a political earthquake in Mexico.
“There is a total uncertainty and fear in the presidency,” said José Luis Montenegro, a Mexican journalist who wrote a book on The chapitos. “Morena’s politicians must tremble.”
Sheinbaum has been widely acclaimed for his “cool” approach to Trump provocations on issues such as prices, immigration and drug addict. But the Mexican president brutally reprimanded the apparent intentions of American prosecutors with El Chapo’s son. She accused the American hypocrisy authorities – seeking the cooperation of Guzmán López at a time when the Trump administration appointed the Sinaloa cartel and other Mexican criminal groups as terrorist organizations.
“So where is their position to” not negotiate with terrorist groups “?” Asked Sheinbaum this month.
Mexican leaders are still indignant at what they call the kidnapping orchestrated in the United States almost a year ago from Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada-co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel of El Chapo-which is now also in detention in the United States.
The Mexican authorities suspect that the American authorities have recruited Joaquín Guzmán López to remove in May, swarm it in a private planet and go to an aerodrome outside El Paso, where American agents arrested both in May and Joaquín Guzmán López.
Washington has never clarified its role in the sensational case. The apparent betrayal of El Mayo sparked a civil war in the cartel – opposing the Loyalists of El Mayo The chapitos – It cost hundreds of lives in the state of Sinaloa.
Now, three best Capos of the accused’s Sinaloa cartel are seated in the United States, and at least one, Guzmán López, seems eager to conclude an agreement that could expose a network of official corruption, roasting Mexican policy.
The special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
