In Badiraguato, "Chapo's" Birthplace, Armed Men Detain Press Convoy Covering AMLO

 ”Ivan” for Borderland Beat 

The checkpoint was located about 30 minutes from the La Tuna ranch, where Mrs. María Consuelo Loera, Joaquín Guzmá’s mother, lives.

Badiraguato, Sinaloa – A group of 10 men armed with AK-47s set up a roadblock this Friday at the height of the community of Bacacoragua, on the Badiraguato-Guadalupe y Calvo highway, where they stopped the convoy of national press covering the activities of President López Obrador on his working tour of the “Golden Triangle”, the birthplace of the Sinaloa Cartel. 

The checkpoint was located about 30 minutes from the La Tuna ranch, where Mrs. María Consuelo Loera, mother of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, lives, in the heart of the “Golden Triangle,” a region stigmatized by the cultivation of poppy and marijuana for drug cartels. 

-Where are you going, my friend?” said the man with a Sinaloan accent, holding a AK-47. 

-We are going to the President’s event,” replied the driver of the vehicle to the man who approached the vehicle, scrutinizing each of the media representatives through the windows, while another armed man took the driver’s side. 

The group of 10 men were dressed in bulletproof vests, with up to eight magazines, military-style uniforms, radio communication equipment, small arms and AK-47s in three pickup trucks without license plates deployed on the road. 

- “No weapons?” the man asked as he checked inside the vehicle.

- “No, just cameras,” replied one of the occupants. 

- “Do they have them turned off,” replied the man who was wearing military-style clothing, but instead of boots he was wearing huaraches, and on his left arm he wore a patch with the image of an orange in the middle of two black number “7′s”.

-Yes, look,” they replied.- “Where are they going?” he insisted in a serious tone, without expressing a single insult, but without ceasing to observe the occupants. 

- “Guadalupe y Calvo to the event,” he was answered. 

At the “request” of the man with the AK-47, the reporters put an elderly man in the van where they were being transported, who closed the door and instructed them to continue on their way. The elderly man affirmed that Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s family “are very charitable” because they have a restaurant and “give free food”.

It was in this area in March 2020, during a supervisory tour, where President López Obrador got out of his truck and shook hands with Mrs. María Consuelo, who has requested help from the government to obtain a visa with the United States to be able to see her son imprisoned in that nation.

EL UNIVERSAL