The pieces of the capture of the powerful founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael The May Zambada, they continue to fit in. Through a letter, signed by him and distributed by his lawyer this Saturday to American newspapers, the Mexican capo gives details of what happened on July 25, when he was taken into custody of the United States authorities. El Mayo claims that he was kidnapped after arriving at a meeting, on the outskirts of Culiacán, where he was to meet with the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, and Héctor Melesio Cuén, former mayor of Culiacán. The meeting, according to the version of the leader of the criminal group, was arranged by Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of El Chapo, to “help resolve differences between political leaders.” As soon as he arrived at the place he was kidnapped and taken in a private plane to El Paso, Texas. “The idea that I surrendered or cooperated voluntarily is completely false,” reads the document.
Zambada’s version of events is consistent with the one officially presented by Ken Salazar, the US ambassador to Mexico, on Friday afternoon. The diplomat said that Guzmán López had voluntarily surrendered to the authorities and that El Mayo had been taken against his will. Salazar also said that “no US resources were used in the surrender”: “It was not our plane, nor our pilot, nor our agents in Mexico.” He also specified that the aircraft had arrived from Sinaloa and not from Sonora, as was initially said.
The governor of Sinaloa, the Morena member Rubén Rocha, said after the ambassador’s statements that he was out of Mexico that day and knew nothing about the operation of the two drug lords. This Saturday he has not yet commented on his alleged participation in the meeting with the drug traffickers. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has done so, who has asked to “wait until more information is available”: “On Monday in the morning we will be able to talk properly. We have to wait for the governor to give his version, until we have all the elements. The important thing is that there is peace in the country.”
The arrest of The May Zambada has caused an earthquake in Mexico. The veteran criminal, 76 years old, has not set foot in jail in five decades. He had not been seen for years and no images of him had been released. He was a shadow, still in charge of one of the most powerful cartels in the country, who lived permanently hidden in the mountains of Sinaloa. That elusive figure was the one that the US federal agents saw getting off a private plane. They had the drug lord of drug lords on a silver platter.
Since it came to light, the operation has been plagued with questions. Especially for the Mexican administration. Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that his government had nothing to do with the arrest. He was neither consulted nor notified nor did he participate. This lack of collaboration has opened cracks in the trust between the two countries, for whom security has become one of the most delicate issues in their bilateral relationship.
Salazar yesterday gave a dignified solution to this thorny issue, after López Obrador pressed that they had not given enough information, and assured that the US did not know that Zambada and Guzmán López were on the plane until two hours before the arrest, around four in the afternoon. “We were surprised when that happened and from the moment we knew about it, we were immediately in contact with our friends and colleagues in the Mexican government, that same afternoon,” Salazar assured.
There has been much speculation over the past few weeks about what made El Mayo come out of hiding so he could be captured. According to his version, it was because of the meeting he was going to have with Rocha and Cuén: “I knew about the open dispute between them (…) over who should lead the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.” “On July 25, I went to the ranch and events center called Huertos del Pedregal, just outside Culiacán, where the meeting was to take place. The meeting was scheduled for 11 a.m. and I arrived a little early. I saw a large number of armed men in green military uniforms, who I assumed were the gunmen of Joaquín Guzmán and his brothers. I was accompanied by four security men, two of whom waited outside the perimeter. The two who went in with me were José Rosario Heras López, a commander of the Judicial Police of the State of Sinaloa, and Rodolfo Chaidez, a long-time member of my security team.”
Zambada claims that after greeting Hector Cuen—who was rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Secretary of Health of the Government of Ruben Rocha and founder of the Sinaloa Party (PAS)—and one of his assistants, he saw Guzman Lopez, El Güero. “I have known him since he was a child and he told me to follow him. Trusting the nature of the meeting and the people involved, I followed him without hesitation. I was directed to another room that was dark. As soon as I set foot in that room, I was ambushed. A group of men assaulted me, threw me to the ground and placed a dark hood over my head. They attacked me and handcuffed me, and forced me into a van. During this entire ordeal, I was subjected to physical abuse, which resulted in severe injuries to my back, knee and wrists,” reads the document released by LA Times.
The drug lord claims that he was taken to a landing strip about 20 minutes away, where he was forced to board a private plane, in which only Guzmán López, the pilot and he were. There he was tied up, until they landed after a three-hour non-stop flight in the United States. “I was brought to this country by force and under duress, without my consent and against my will,” he says.
The cartel founder also refutes the official version of the Sinaloa authorities that Hector Cuen was killed in a robbery at a gas station on the afternoon of July 25, when two men tried to steal his truck. “That is not what happened. He was killed at the same time and in the same place where I was kidnapped. Hector Cuen was a long-time friend of mine and I deeply regret his death as well as the disappearance of Jose Rosario Heras Lopez and Rofoldo Chaidez, who have not been seen since then.”
Zambada includes in his statement a “call to the Government of Mexico and the United States to be transparent and tell the truth” about what happened on July 25. In addition, the founder of one of the most feared cartels in the country ends with a request “to the people of Sinaloa to restrain themselves and maintain peace”: “Nothing can be resolved with violence. We have been there before and everyone loses.”
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