By Juan Alberto Vazquez
Sep 27, 2023, 12:38 PM EDT
“Yes, we are going to request the extradition of the four or five missing Chapitos,” said the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland, in an appearance last Wednesday the 20th in Congress where he went to defend the commission of the institution that command. In reality, the official was caught out of line with the questions about the fentanyl crisis because there are 3 children of El Chapo Guzmán with a ruling in the United States, in addition to Ovidio Guzmán López who is already sleeping in a prison in Illinois.
However, the fact that this case was discussed in the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, and the media uproar that both in Mexico and the United States caused the extradition and start of the legal process against “Un Chapito”, was not They had been watching since their father, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, traveled the same route in January 2017.
The interest is not gratuitous if we consider that we are talking about the youngest son of the most famous imprisoned drug trafficker of those found under the protection of the Bureau of Prisons, one who has inserted himself into the consciousness of the average American at the level of a villain more devious than any of those from Marvel or DC Comics. The excitement over this new inmate indicates something else: that the “El Chapo” brand is still capable of raising indignation, sighs and, above all, attractive press headlines.
Added to Ovidio’s famous surnames, his extradition comes when there is a tragedy of deaths from synthetic opioid overdoses, 80 percent of them due to fentanyl. A sector of voters demands revenge because incendiary rhetoric from Republican congressmen and governors has inoculated public opinion with the idea that the Sinaloa Cartel faction commanded by Joaquín Guzmán’s sons is the major cause of this crisis.
So Ovidio Guzmán López will face that extra pressure and must also decide whether to cooperate and expose his brothers’ operations or sacrifice himself and go to the last instance of a trial where the possibility of redemption is zero. And, just as happened with his father, we would return to the media circus of a process where evidence is the least that counts.
It is also interesting to decipher the attitude that the Illinois prosecutors assigned to the case will take, having the option of rushing Ovidio’s guilty plea or, as it is a high-profile case, seeking the media showcase of a trial to hand over this defendant as trophy to those who claim, without evidence, complicity of the Biden government with the cartels.
Poor Ovid!
In addition to the criminal activities for which he is accused and which protected witnesses such as Dámaso López Núñez “El Licensed” will surely corroborate, he must fight against the stigma of being a Guzmán, a Chapito, a burden equal to or heavier than shipments of cocaine, heroin , methamphetamine or marijuana that you may have brought into the United States. * Juan Alberto Vázquez is a correspondent for MVS Noticias (Mexico) and author of the book “NXIVM: The sect that seduced power in Mexico”and “The pimps of Tlaxcala” .
Twitter @juansinatra