Another ‘near miss’ in the hunt for ‘el Chapo’
Ninety-seven days after Joaquín Guzmán (‘el Chapo’) broke out of the Altiplano high-security prison, the government’s security cabinet announced that he had evaded recapture somewhere in the northeast of the country and in his flight had suffered injuries to a leg and his face ― not, the official communiqué said, as a result of a ‘direct confrontation’. To date, the authorities have not added any precision to this account, save to deny some claims in the media. Though a full, accurate account is yet to emerge, the information that has become available suggests that the government may have had good reasons to remain tight-lipped.
On 16 October the security cabinet (the ministers of interior, defence and navy, the federal procurator-general and the national security commissioner) issued the following communiqué:
‘Regarding information published by some national and international media, the institutions forming the security cabinet of the government of the Republic report the following:
‘From the day Joaquín Guzmán Loera escaped, the institutions of the security cabinet set in motion a coordinated strategy with the objective of achieving his recapture. As part of these efforts and deriving from the work of intelligence and exchange of information with international agencies, operations have been carried out across the country, focusing in recent weeks on the northeastern region of the national territory.
‘As a consequence of these actions and in order to avoid his capture, in recent days the fugitive staged a precipitate escape which, according to information received, caused injuries to one of his legs and his face. It is important to emphasise that these injuries were not the result of a direct confrontation.’
There was no mention of dates or locations of the events mentioned, nor of the source of the information about Guzmán’s reported injuries. Accounts provided by the media and officials speaking on and off the record point to government intelligence-driven operations focusing on the northeastern states of Durango and Sinaloa since late July. Between then and the date of the security cabinet communiqué three ‘narrow escapes’ by Guzmán were reported.
From Altiplano to the Golden Triangle
Investigations into Guzmán’s escape from Altiplano (according to a 21 October account by federal procurator-general Arely Gómez González) revealed that from the prison he had travelled overland to San Juan del Río (Querétaro), from where he continued on a light aircraft to Mazatlán (Sinaloa), then overland to Guasave. After that, according to the newspaper La Reforma, he flew into the mountains of the Triángulo Dorado (‘Golden Triangle’), which straddle the boundaries of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.
Acting on intelligence which suggested that Guzmán would be travelling to a meeting in Los Mochis (Sinaloa), a marine unit was sent on 30 July to a rural area close to that city. By the time they arrived, Guzmán was gone. For the following two months, the trail went cold.
According to an unnamed official cited in a CNN report, on 6 October Guzmán was spotted in Durango, with his sons. That same day, according to reports by neighbours, marines entered the village of El Verano, in Tamazula, Durango, and opened fire against some of the houses.
The secretary of Tamazula municipality, Eduardo Mejía, said that through radio contact with the communities he had learnt that there had been an exchange of gunfire at El Verano, as a result of which a military helicopter was brought down, and that the marines had imposed a lockdown on the village. The Sinaloa-based newspaper El Debate reported claims by people in Tamazula that they had heard helicopters overhead followed by shots from an armed confrontation between gunmen and marines.
The navy ministry (SEMAR) promptly denied that the marines had fired on houses, that a helicopter had been downed and that a lockdown had been imposed on either El Verano or nearby Los Limones.
On 12 October observers from the national human rights commission (CNDH, an official body that acts as a public ombudsman) arrived for an inspection. The marines did not allow them to enter El Verano or take photos or videos; they were allowed to enter La Sierrita but not to take pictures. An officer told the observers that the people who had left were free to return, but warned them not to do so at night, or to disobey orders to halt, because they were under orders to open fire.
On 14 October the governor of Sinaloa, Mario López, said that military operations were under way in the mountains between Jesús María, about 36km north of the state capital ― broadly hinting that they were searching for Guzmán. In Durango, he said, marines had encircled 13 communities where, according to a town councillor in Cosalá, Sinaloa, their presence and a crossfire had led about 260 people to flee and seek refuge in his city.
On 16 October NBC reported that intercepted cell-phone signals suggested that Guzmán had been hiding in a ranch near Cosalá. An attack by helicopter-borne marines was aborted off when it was met by ground fire. By the time a ground sortie was carried out, an injured Guzmán and his bodyguards had fled on quads.
[A different version was provided on 21 October by CNN, which cited ‘a Mexican official with knowledge of the investigation’ as its source: marines had spotted Guzmán near Cosalá but held back because he was with a child; later, seeing him alone, they pursued him on foot. In his flight Guzmán fell off a cliff, injuring himself; his bodyguards carried him away. This report says the Cosalá location was obtained from readings of digital instruments in Guzmán’s plane.]
The first reaction to the NBC report, which had been rapidly picked up ― with various unsourced additions ― by other media, came almost immediately from national security commissioner Renato Sales. In a press conference he acknowledged that a confrontation had taken place (but did not say when) and denied that Guzmán had been recaptured. Soon afterwards came the security cabinet communiqué.
Questioned on 26 October by a radio interviewer regarding the role of ‘international agencies’ in the search for Guzmán, interior minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said that the US had helped ‘with information’ but that ‘not a single person’ belonging to US security agencies had taken part in operations within Mexico. The DEA has acknowledged its cooperation in the area of intelligence. Osorio was cautious about what might come next. ‘We are working on his capture,’ he said, ‘but it would be irresponsible to say that we have him in any single location or that we have him surrounded.’