Mexico’s president issued an appeal on Monday to drug cartels not to fight each other following the recent arrests of alleged drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia and Joaquín Guzmán López.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said during his daily press briefing that he trusted that drug cartels knew that stepping up internal wars would increase the suffering that already plagued the Sinaloa cartel.
“Those who are engaged in these illegal activities know they resolve nothing with confrontations,” Mr. López Obrador said. “They would go out and risk the lives of other human beings, and why make families suffer?”
“I trust that there will be no confrontations,” he said. The Mexican army announced over the weekend that it had sent an additional 200 elite soldiers from a paratrooper unit to the state of Sinaloa.
There were no immediate reports of increased violence over the weekend.
The Sinaloa cartel has been split for years by fighting between followers of Mr. Zambada Garcia and rivals who follow the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, the father of Mr. Guzmán López.
Another of El Chapo’s sons, Ovidio Guzmán López, was extradited to the United States in September 2023, where he pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering, and other charges during his first court appearance in Chicago. Other sons are still at large.
Mr. Zambada Garcia and Mr. Guzmán Lopez have played leading roles in the Sinaloa cartel. Both men were arrested and detained on July 25 when they arrived in Texas aboard a private airplane.
The president of Mexico has been known to urge drug gangs for peace, and at times even praise them.
In 2021, Mr. López Obrador praised the drug cartel for not causing widespread violence during the elections that year.
Captured by US Authorities
Last week’s arrests proved to be an embarrassment for Mexican officials, who were forced to admit they were unaware of the operation that led to the capture of Mr. Zambada Garcia and Mr. Guzmán López until it was over.Mr. Zambada Garcia spent decades eluding authorities until a plane carrying him and Mr. Guzmán López landed in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, near El Paso, Texas, on Thursday. Both men were arrested and remain jailed. They are facing various U.S. drug charges.
Mr. López Obrador said there were indications that U.S. authorities had been negotiating with Mr. Guzmán López to turn himself in, possibly for months or years before he decided to do so.
The Mexican president said there was no information about how Mr. Zambada Garcia ended up on the flight, and that Mexican prosecutors were investigating to determine if he was kidnapped.
Lawyer Frank Perez, who is representing the 76-year-old Mr. Zambada Garcia, argued that his client did not end up in the United States of his own free will.
“My client neither surrendered nor negotiated any terms with the U.S. government,” said Mr. Perez in a statement. “Joaquín Guzmán López forcibly kidnapped my client. He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquin. His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head.”
Mr. Zambada Garcia has pending charges in several U.S. states, including in New York and California.
In New York, federal prosecutors described him as the “principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing enormous quantities of narcotics into the United States.”
In that indictment, filed in February, the U.S. Department of Justice also alleged that he had employed hit men, or “sicarios,” to retaliate against rivals by carrying out kidnappings and murders.
