Government admits suspect is not El Chapo’s son
Within 24 hours of parading the captured “son” of elusive drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman before the media last week, the Mexican government was forced to admit to an embarrassing case of mistaken identity.
The suspect, arrested during a raid on his Zapopan home last Thursday, was not El Chapo’s son Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, as the authorities had claimed. He was in fact Felix Beltran Leon, a 23-year-old used-car salesman.
A lawyer claiming to represent the family of Joaquin Guzman, who heads the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, released a statement on Friday denying that the suspect in custody was El Chapo’s son.
The suspect’s mother then spoke to journalists and denied any link to Guzman or organized crime. Once identity test were completed a few hours later, the government finally admitted its mistake.
The case highlights the flaws in the Mexican government’s practise of parading suspects in front of the media just hours after arrest, before formal charges have been brought against them.
It is also embarrassing for the U.S. government. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been working with the Mexican authorities to track down El Chapo – the world’s most wanted drug lord – and immediately lauded the apparent arrest of his son.
The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) in Mexico said on Friday that the erroneous identification was based on information supplied by U.S. officials. But DEA spokesman Rusty Payne hit back affirming that “the Mexican Navy and Mexican law enforcement have said this is El Chapo’s son and that’s what we took.”
Beltran, is being investigated for guns and money allegedly found at his house during the arrest and will remain in custody for up to 40 days.
The Mexican Navy said they found 135,000 dollars and 295,000 pesos in cash on the premises, as well as false identifications, two assualt fifles, two pistols, a grenade launcher and four grenades. Beltran’s lawyers said the cash was the result of a recent home sale but the weapons were planted there by the Mexican authorities.
Presidential frontrunner snubs student debate
Broadcast online and over the radio from Mexico City, the unprecedented #Debate132 was beset by technical problems but represented a triumph for democracy. Striking back at what they consider mainstream media manipulation, the organizers briefly subverted the domination of Mexico’s electoral politics by media giants such as Televisa and TV Azteca.
Josefina Vazquez Mota of the National Action Party (PAN), Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Gabriel Quadri of the New Alliance Party (PANAL) participated in the debate, with frontrunner Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) conspicuous by his absence.
An empty seat was laid out to highlight the fact that Peña Nieto, who had little to gain from taking part, had declined to join the debate. With the organizers having “adopted a political position against myself and my policies,” the PRI candidate argued that they could not guarantee conditions for a neutral debate to take place.
The debate is unlikely to have a major impact on the election, which at this stage seems Peña Nieto’s to lose. The frontrunner may have lost some votes for refusing to take part, but, more importantly, in doing so he avoided the potential for any major slipups.
Peña Nieto maintains a 15.7 point lead in the polls, according to a survey released by Mitofsky on Tuesday. Among decided voters, Peña Nieto has 44.4 percent of support, Lopez Obrador has 28.7 percent and Vazquez Mota trails with 24.6 percent.
Although Lopez Obrador has cited surveys in which he leads the pack and Vazquez Mota has claimed to be just points behind Peña Nieto, Mitofsky is considered one of the more trustworthy pollsters.
Mitofsky also conducted a definitive poll of polls on Tuesday, taking an average of results from the most recent surveys by Milenio, El Universal, Excelsior, Reforma and El Sol de Mexico, alongside its own findings. The results put Peña Nieto on 43.5 percent, Lopez Obrador on 28 percent and Vazquez Mota on 25.4 percent.
El Chapo’s son arrested in Guadalajara
Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, alias “El Alfredillo” or “El Gordo,” was captured by marines and transported to Mexico City, where he was presented before the press by the federal Attorney General’s Office.
On June 7 the U.S. Treasury added Guzman, 26, to its “black list” of drug suspects, freezing any assests he held in the United States and barring U.S. citizens from doing business with him. He stands accused of drug trafficking in Chicago since 2009 and now faces extradition to stand trial in the United States.
“We congratulate the government of Mexico and the Calderon administration on another victory against the ruthless cartels,” said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokesman Rusty Payne. “This is the first step in bringing another ruthless drug baron to justice.”
Guzman is considered a key member of his father’s Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal gangs in Mexico. Authorities discovered 295,000 pesos in cash, several false identifications, various firearms and four grenades at his home in the Jardines de la Patria neighborhood of Zapopan. Kevin Daniel Beltran Rios, 18, as also detained in the raid.
The arrest came just four days after El Chapo’s nephew Obied Cano Zepeda was shot dead at his home in Culiacan, Sinaloa, although there is no evidence to suggest the events were related.
Cano, 24, was reportedly celebrating Father’s Day with his family when assassins armed with AK-47s pulled up in three vehicles and opened fire. Two other guests were killed and a third was seriously injured.
Named by Forbes magazine as the 55th most powerful person on earth, El Chapo is a modern-day Pablo Escobar. He has a seven-million-dollar bounty on his head and assumed the mantle of the world’s most wanted criminal after the death of Osama Bin Laden last year.
Since escaping from the Puente Grande maximum-security prison just outside Guadalajara in 2001 – legend has it he was wheeled out in a laundry cart – El Chapo has narrowly avoided recapture on several occasions, most recently slipping out of a mansion in Los Cabos in February just minutes before it was raided.
With the presidential election looming, there has been speculation in Mexico that the government would spring a late surprise, capturing El Chapo in hope of a dramatic boost in the polls. But there is no evidence to support such rumors and the arrest of his son is highly unlikely to have any effect on how Mexicans vote.
Recent arrests in Jalisco have also discredited conspiracy theories that President Felipe Calderon has been protecting the Sinaloa Cartel, while going after their fiercest rivals, Los Zetas.
In July 2010, Igancio “Nacho” Coronel Villareal, who ran the Sinaloa Cartel’s activities in Jalisco, was killed during a shoot-out with the Mexican Army in a raid on his Zapopan home.
In March 2012, federal police arrested Coronel’s close ally, Erick Valencia Salazar. Kingpin of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion allied to the Sinaloa Cartel, Valencia was captured in a raid on his home, also in Zapopan, an action which prompted the burning of dozens of buses across Guadalajara in retaliation.
Then in April, Victor Emilio Cazares, one of Guzman’s top lieutenants, was arrested at a military checkpoint just outside Guadalajara, following a tip-off from U.S. federal agents.
The Tequila Files 