Newest scenario: Chapo fell off cliff during escape, face injuries, possible broken leg

by Lucio R.  for Borderland Beat

Near Cosalá, Sinaloa

Sometimes when reading  a report or an article, one will  spot “facts” that are not so factual,  leaving the  reader questioning the integrity of the remainder of the story, especially when the article is threaded with additional, questionable “facts”. Those frustrating articles, leaves dedicated students of the Mexican drug war, organized crime, and capos,  with  some head serious head-shaking,  due to  the absurdity of certain speculations or reports substantiated from anonymous sources.

For starters, CNN is reporting that 3 days before a confrontation with Mexican Marina (Navy) Chapo was seen riding motorcycles with a son, and with another riding in a Ferrari.  The CNN report also alluded to 3 weeks earlier “Chapo’s son” tweeted a photo with his son while they were dining al fresco at an eatery.  

CNN did not say the location of the dining setting, only that the photo depicts “El Chapo brazenly eating at a restaurant.”  When the photo went viral it named Costa Rica as the location.

CNN didn’t name the son, but the young man in the photo, did not appear to be any one of the sons previously identified as being El Chapo’s.

Issues such as that, and the use artistic liberty, can be fed to most people north of the border, because most people north, use one source to educate themselves on Mexico drug war issues and news  and that is U.S. mainstream media. 

Chapo is many things, but stupid is not even on the mile long list. And he is an astute student in learning lessons from mistakes.  He was captured in 2014 after he became a little complacent with his security, making more frequent trips down off the mountain.  And he and his crew, were  remiss with those troublesome cell phones and radio interceptions the U.S. Drug Administration are so good at.

In the case of Mazatlán, his son and bodyguard were two of the cell interceptions that aided the capture. 

Riding around in Ferarri’s eating in public view,  when the nations forces, backed by U.S elements, are in hot pursuit, pulling out all stops, at all cost, is how a stupid man would conduct himself, fresh after a made for Hollywood underground prison escape, it's doubtful it would be the behavior of Chapo Guzman.

The aforementioned is a bit of a qualifier, leading into the report of CNN.  Which I believe has some degree of credibility, at least with respect to El Chapo being injured.

And since the story has flooded mainstream media, more than a few readers have been requesting information regarding the article and asking the opinion of BB as to its validity.  

The injuries were first reported by NBC.  Telemundo is a part of the NBC Universal family and NBC has published some credible articles on Mexico’s narco war, their sources appear to be relatively good. With Mexico’s confirmation about Chapos injuries, the report is more than likely accurate to the extent of he being injured.   I am going with the theory that medical personnel may have given information.  

But that is just conjecture on my part.

It happens more often than one would think.  An example is in the Iguala case, it was the medical staff that reported information including the command from the army and other authorities not to send ambulances to the injured and to turn victims away.  They ignored the command. And supposedly a doctor in Culiacan provide information about Chapo must prior to his 2014 arrest.

Cosala

Tamazula: dotting the roof are bullet impact holes, sustained from Mexican Navy's helicopter gunfire

The first reported violence attributed to Chapo’s capture attempts by the Marina using DEA agency intelligence.  The scene was in Tamazula de Victoria is a small town and seat of the municipality of Tamazula in Durango, near the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. The town is located about 1.5 hours east of Culiacán, Sinaloa.  Reports initially came from the terrified citizens of Tamazula who fled their homes, into the forest, when Marina forces in helicopters and on foot were firing upon their homes in search of Chapo.  The search, which authorities and The Marina  initially denied.  It was the U.S. media who was reporting information given to them, most likely from sources within U.S. federal agencies.

The search then moved near the Pueblo Magico town of Cosalá, Sinaloa. Nearby lives  Dep. Lucero Sanchez, the lady of congress, who visited Chapo in prison, allegedly using false identification, and who the PGR agency has declared is the mother of Chapo’s baby son.

What is known, is that intelligence was used to determine that El Chapo was using a ranch near Cosala for refuge.  Federal forces discovered that Chapo was being protected by several layers of security, intelligence and a narco army of CDS soldiers. There was a shootout that became so intense it drove back federal forces that were on foot to reach the clandestine ranch.

What was reported by U.S. and confirmed days later  by Mexico,  is that El Chapo sustained injuries to the face and leg, while escaping the clash.  Mexico stressed twice in their presser that El Chapo was not injured by federal forces.  This information broke from  NBC Universal who cited sources within the DEA.

Neither the U.S. or Mexico; offered details about the injuries, addressed how they were able to confirm the story,  or in what circumstance were they sustained.  

There were reports of an ATV accident while escaping.  Other reports said medical personnel had forwarded information to authorities, another saying medicine, clothing and cell phones were left at the ranch.  And yet another saying Chapo’s so called “escape pilot” is singing an opera to authorities, the pilot who we know nothing about, no name, not even the date of his capture or how he was captured.

     Ricardo Ochoa Beltrán, mayor of Tamazula, Durango, is the brother in law of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

 The   mayor is married to Érika Guadalupe Coronel Aispuro, sister of Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of the leader

of the  Cártel de Sinaloa. –he is legally married to only his first wife by his own admission when giving personal

information at time of 2014 arrest

That brings us up to date, and to the breaking Chapo news of the day.

CNN is reporting additional details in the “near capture” of Chapo in Cosalá.  

“A Mexican official, with knowledge of the manhunt said, “Mexican Special Forces had spotted ‘the ruthless’ drug dealer near the town of Cosalá”.

They report; authorities were reluctant to close in on Chapo, because, according to the source, there was a child with him.  Decision makers decided against a firefight because of the child.  In the world of Mexican decision makers, it is perfectly within in reason, while searching for Chapo, to fire into the homes of innocent people, from helicopters, without regard to the small children inside, but a child with Chapo, can cause federal forces to  slam on the brakes in a massive operation. 

The report continued, 

“later, when El Chapo was spotted without the child, Mexican Marines gave chase. That’s when El Chapo either fell or jumped off a small cliff, injuring his face, and possibly breaking his leg. At that point, the official says Guzman’s bodyguards rushed to the bottom of the cliff, carried him out and got away through the dense forest.

“They have him pinned in if you will, right in his area, his backyard,” said Carl Pike, Former DEA Special Agent.”

One source says Mexican Marines weren’t able to catch El Chapo at that moment because they were on foot as well.

It continues:

“CNN has also learned, three-days before that chase, the drug kingpin known for killing thousands of people was spotted in a nearby town on a motorcycle and in a Ferrari, with his sons. Weeks earlier, one son allegedly tweeted a photo, supposedly showing El Chapo brazenly eating at a restaurant. 

Now, however, he may no longer be as bold because of his injuries falling from that cliff.”

“This involves bringing in people who weren’t in the normal ring. So now they got to find a medical person or a nurse or someone like that- that can actually tend to his injuries. And it slows him down, puts him in one particular spot that he wasn’t planning on being in before,” said Pike.

“El Chapo is known as a master of high-stakes escapes. He broke out of a high-security Mexican prison in July through this elaborate tunnel. Previously he eluded police, through a trap-door hidden under his bathtub.”

“Authorities could be tracking him through his wife, Emma Coronel, a former beauty queen, believed to be seen in some photos posted online.”  (-props for this time,  getting photos that are of Emma and not any ol Sinaloa beauty queen,  as in the past-)

“I would imagine that U.S authorities, intelligence services, and Mexican authorities are tracking her very, very closely. And that they have good ways of doing that. So I would have thought that it’s in most likelihood that they are separate for the time being,” said Duncan Wood, The Woodrow Wilson Center. (–especially with Lucero and the new kid around-)

Chapo’s wives,  children and mistresses

No aspect of Chapo’s life is boring and that includes his family and love life, here is an overview of his familial relationships.

In 1977, Joaquin Chapo Guzman married his first wife is Alejandrina María Salazar Hernández. Chapo remains legally married to her, and her only, as he never divorced her.  When he gave his personal history to prison authorities in 2014, he listed Alejandrina as his wife.

Their sons are Ivan and Jesus

In 1980 El Chapo Guzman “married”  his second wife Griselda López Pérez, mother of their 4 children Édgar, Joaquín, Ovidio and Griselda Guadalupe.  Edgar was gun downed in a parking lot at a Sinaloa shopping mall in 2008. 

It was at Griselda’s home in Culiacan in 2014, that El Chapo fled before capture, escaping under a hydraulic  spa tub hatch system,  that opened to a ladder and tunnel running through a drain system.  He barely made it out, thanks to the steel entry doors that required more than 5 minutes to penetrate and gain entry, by that time El Chapo was nowhere in sight.

Griselda filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission because of the damage caused by the raid.

In 2001 Chapo married for the third time, to 18-year-old beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro in Canelas, Durango. Emma gave birth to their twin girls in a Los Angeles, California.

In July, 2010 Emma Coronel’s uncle Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, a one-time partner of Guzman, was killed  in an epic shootout with the Mexican army and Navy.

Aside from the eight children acknowledged above, Chapo has an unknown number of children through various affairs with mistresses.

The most famous of his mistresses was Zulema Hernandez she was serving time at the Puente Grande maximum-security prison outside Guadalajara, where El Chapo was also serving his sentence, they fell hard for each other, and  became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage during the second trimester after a beating by prison guards.

She was released in 2003 and arrested again after she was caught with two tons of cocaine. After her second released in 2006 she became a part of the Sinaloa cartel,  until she was killed by the Zetas in December, 2007

Her body was found inside the trunk of a car, she had been shot in the head. Carved into her breasts, stomach and buttocks was the letter Z.

Categories: Cosala Sinaloa, El Chapo, Hunting El Chapo, sinaloa cartel, Tamazula Durango