Guzmán’s arrest is not due to US pressure: López Obrador

Emir Olivares and Laura Poy

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday January 7, 2023, p. 3

The decision to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, was made by the Mexican government autonomously and did not respond to pressure from the United States, stressed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Yesterday morning at the National Palace, he was asked about the interpretations that have been given in various spaces after the capo’s capture, in the sense that this apprehension was carried out at the request of the administration of US President Joe Biden, versions which discarded: We do not share them, because we act autonomously.

He indicated that there is collaboration with the White House in security matters, but the intervention of US agencies in this type of action is not allowed.

We act autonomously, independently. Yes, there is cooperation, and it will continue to be, but we make the decisions as a sovereign, independent government, and these decisions are made by the security cabinet.

He recalled that on two occasions he rejected the help that former US president Donald Trump offered him in the face of acts of violence: the failed capture of Ovidio Guzmán himself and the murder of women and children of the LeBarón family in Bavispe, Sonora, in October and November of 2019, respectively, because he told him that the Mexican authority would solve them.

He highlighted that during the operation to apprehend Guzmán López in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and the subsequent violent events, the security forces acted responsibly to care for the civilian populationso that there would be no innocent victims, and thanked the support of Governor Rubén Rocha and municipal authorities.

Before morning, he received a report from the state president, which he read: “Mr. President, as I told you on the phone, there are no active blockades, only the interruption of traffic on some highway sections where we have not yet managed to completely withdraw the blocking vehicles, because they are very large and because they are very complex due to the situation in which they were placed, but we are working to remove scrap metal and debris on all roads. Perhaps this task will take us all day, especially on certain road sections.

In the city of Culiacán we have already opened all the blocked streets and we are in the task of removing the burned cars, which we put on the sidewalks. There are no blockades under resistance from armed people. The delay is only due to the difficult, arduous nature of the tasks that I am telling you about.

The President emphasized that in his administration there is no association with criminal groups. The line is well painted, it is not like before, where it was not known where crime ended and where authority began, because there was no dividing line, to the point, as we know, that those in charge of public security were practically aware of crime service. They can invent what they want, but we are acting fairly, with integrity, and we will continue to do so..