Badiraguato Mayor talks: Chapo's replacement, El Azul's "death", the whereabouts of Rafael Caro Quintero

Lucio for Borderland Beat-translated from El Pais and posted by siskiyoukid

Driving along the road we happen upon cows and men with cowboy hats riding on the back of old mares.  We journeyed until in the distance, we saw the giant letters written on a hill, Hollywood-style, they read ‘BADIRAGUATO’. In this town of 32,000 inhabitants, located in the foothills of the Sierra in Sinaloa, where more savvy farmers grow marijuana instead of beans, the most famous drug traffickers in Mexico's history were born. 

The mayor is one of those ever present politicians. The municipality comprises a town and many villages scattered through the mountains, some seven hours away up the mountain.

This winter, Mario Valenzuela is touring all of them handing out blankets, wheelchairs and messages like this to residents: "I come to ask them to be responsible citizens. In Spain or United States they have the same laws, but there they are enforced. That is the problem we have in Badiraguato and in Mexico in general."

Valenzuela endures the midday sun at El Sitio de Arriba, a village which can be reached after crossing El Sitio de Abajo and El Sitio de Enmedio. His audience waited on the field where they are having the rally: women with children and the elderly. Before the interview in which Valenzuela (PRI, the ruling party) will talk about El Chapo, the mother of El Chapo, the flight of Caro Quintero, the cousin of Caro Quintero and the non-death of  El Azul, play a guessing game with voters:

 " What is the name of the animal that flies with legs? ".

“Duck!", someone  among the public shouts.

Q: What is the situation of Badiraguato a year after the arrest of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán? 

R: The problem is in the State (Sinaloa). An arrest of someone of the caliber of Chapo Guzman

leaves many people unemployed, at least temporarily. While things are transitioned, there are new controls, new hierarchies, resulting in new problems. Robberies have increased, also there are more assaults...

Q. A year ago, you told me that you had a relationship with the mother of El Chapo. 

R. La señora  (María Consuelo Loera) is thinner. On Wednesday of last week I was in La Tuna (a village of the municipality where EL Chapo was born).
 
She is quiet, stable. 

Today I did not see her, but the time before I went to a first stone ceremony (first stone laid commemorating a construction start) and to the Churchof which she belongs, (built by El Chapo, although he is Catholic, the church is Evangelical) and  I was with her for a while. She invited me to join her for breakfast and I did so with much pleasure. It is not her fault what her child does.

Q. Do you believe that the successor of El Chapo may be Dámaso López Nuñez, El Licenciado?

A. I don't know. What is certain is that El Chapo has a son, who is Ivan, also his brother, who is Aureliano [El Mudo], and I think that they would be in control before El Licenciado.

 

Q. Have you seen presence of other criminal groups that want to take this plaza that belongs to the Sinaloa cartel? 

R. No. The hierarchy of these people isn’t local, it is essentially international. 

Q. They have detected methamphetamine laboratories in Badiraguato?

R. They already produce synthetic drugs here.  And that's bad, because in the end it is more harmful than marijuana. Synthetic drugs are the trend, as the plebes (young) say. 
 

Is Badiraguato the cradle of drug trafficking? Yes, here were born many drug traffickers. The Lord of the Skies (Amado Carrillo, who died in 1997 in a cosmetic surgery operation), El Azul (José Juan Esparragoza, historic capo whose children say died), is supposed to be dead, but it is not certain. 

Q. Was his death a sham for the authorities to stop pursuing him? 

R. We have checked with his relatives and those who are close and they say no. Moreover, supposedly, the remains  were transferred up here, I imagine, ashes or whatever. 

Q. Mexican intelligence believes that Caro Quintero - who spent 30 years in prison for the murder of a DEA agent and came out last year through a legal gimmick - freely hides in his village, La Noria, near here. 

R. It would be difficult to say, too bold.. They say yes. In February the Navy came with 18 helicopters. They badly beat the commissioner of the community, a first cousin of Caro Quintero. 

He is not guilty of anything just because he is his cousin. He told the marines that yes; it is true that Caro had been here; he came and they (the people) made a roast (BBQ). They went to greet him in La Noria, with much pleasure. When he was free Caro helped a lot on this road: he installed lights, he built a beautiful church, generated employment for the people. Of course, they treated him like a family member who had been in prison for 30 years. 

There are many hypotheses concerning Caro: he is working in the mines, that he is helping people, or that he is in control of the cartel. They say that he prefers to be eaten by the mosquitoes of the Sierra, than to return to prison. 

Q. in the mural of illustrious characters of Badiraguato that you are building will it include...? 

R. N’ombre! (Contraction of "no hombre" used like "no way") I will not put El Chapo there.  I would say Peña Nieto is going up.