Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) claimed that top drug kingpin Joaquín Guzmán López, son of El Chapo Guzmán and who was arrested alongside Ismael El Mayo Zambada on July 25 in El Paso, negotiated his surrender with Washington:
"The United States government itself has acknowledged that they carried out a negotiation, at least, with one of the two, with Joaquín Guzmán López, that is what they informed us. It seems that it was an agreement."
AMLO added that the White House has yet to provide the final report on the events that took place on that day at a small airport in El Paso, Texas, but they expect to receive all necessary intelligence before Zambada's trial. "We don't have a date for the report yet, we don't have all the information, but we expect to have it before the trial," López Obrador said.
El Mayo Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, has not yet been scheduled for trial. He pleaded not guilty to 14 charges at his initial court appearance, in which he showed up in a wheelchair and a navy sweatshirt that read "carpe diem". U.S. district judge Kathleen Cardone told lawyers that she designated the case as complex, setting the next conference for September 9.
López Obrador was also quick to emphasize that U.S. forces acted alone and without the involvement of Mexican authorities:
"What we are certain of is that the Mexican armed forces did not intervene; it appears this was an agreement between U.S. authorities and these individuals"
López Obrador went on to urge Zambada to disclose any connections with the Mexican government forged during his criminal career. "If they reveal their ties to Mexican authorities, it will help to know how much support they gave to the authorities, who protected them," he said, before adding that "this is no longer the time when the government protected drug trafficking gangs," referencing past scandals such as the case of former Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, who was found guilty of drug trafficking and corruption in the United States.
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