MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government warned this Friday that the extradition to the United States of Ovidio Guzmán, one of the sons of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán most wanted by the US and recently arrested, will be slow, since he also faces accusations penalties in Mexico.
“(Extradition) is a process. The request is made by the Government, in this case from the United States, but the evidence must be presented and the judges in Mexico decide,” said the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in his daily press conference.
In addition, the president insisted that the extradition will not be carried out by fast track.
For her part, the head of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), Rosa Icela Rodríguez, explained that Mexico has elements to take Ovidio Guzmán to court for crimes against health (drug trafficking) and related to firearms. .
In addition, he said that there are also investigations related to the possibility that the detainee and other people had committed crimes related to organized crime.
“Of course, the above is independent of what results in the events that occurred on the occasion of his arrest,” he said.
The United States, which submitted the extradition request in 2019, accuses the drug trafficker of crimes that deal with the conspiracy to introduce drugs into that country, Rodríguez explained.
The Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, added that, after making the detainee available to a judge, the extradition mechanism has a deadline for the requesting country to present criminal evidence, which he estimates will take longer in the case of the United States. between four and six weeks.
Once said evidence is brought before the judicial authorities, the decision on the extradition will be made by the judge and the Chancellery that he directs.
“It is not a political decision, only from the Foreign Ministry, but essentially from the judge, to verify that the rights of that person are respected, since he is a Mexican citizen,” he commented.
Ovidio Guzmán was arrested at dawn last Thursday in the northern state of Sinaloa during an operation by the Mexican Armed Forces, which led to violent riots in various parts of the region and in which a dozen soldiers and 19 members of crime died. organized.
Subsequently, he was admitted to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation (Cefereso) number 1 Altiplano -also known as the Almoloya prison-, located in the State of Mexico, where his father was detained and from which he escaped in 2015.
The arrest was surprising as it occurred days before US President Joe Biden’s visit to Mexico, on the occasion of the North American Leaders Summit, although López Obrador denied any relationship between the two events.
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