Ovidio Guzmán and 2023

The capture of Ovidio Guzmán, son of the famous Chapo, one of the heads of the Sinaloa cartel (CS), opens the political year in the offensive of President López Obrador in search of annulling the INE, blocking the opposition and winning the elections of this year and the federal ones in 2024. It is no secret to anyone that this apprehension occurs hours before the arrival of US President Joe Biden in Mexico to participate in the trilateral summit of the United States, Canada and our country. The media is pitching it as “a gift to Biden.” AMLO does not hide his intentions to look good with the powerful business partner. Behind all the jingoistic blah-blah of López there is only subordination.

The year starts badly for the president after the failure to bring Minister Yazmín Esquivel Mossa (YEM) to the presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) and the arrival of Guillermo Valls Esponda (GVE) to the presidency of the Federal Court of Administrative Justice (TFJA). President López is bad and bad. The fake minister’s scandal has not ended and has dragged down the CDMX attorney, Ernestina Godoy, Claudia Sheinbaum and a notary who apparently took false testimony. It is not a small thing.

All of the above adds to other calamities. Perhaps the most serious is the division that manifests itself between the bottle caps. Ricardo Monreal at the head of the Senate is forcing a negotiation, something that AMLO does not like to do. As if that were not enough, Ebrard’s team has just filed a complaint against Mexico City officials for the use of public resources in campaign events. Despite what the president of MORENA says (it is a saying), Mario Delgado, friendship does not seem to emerge among the candidates for the candidacy for that organization. The process that he uncovered does not seem to be going well for the president.

Returning to the topic Ovidio Guzmán, it is striking that López Obrador, so given to boasting about how many actions his government is carrying out, is so reserved on the subject. In his morning conference on Thursday, January 5, he was especially discreet with the arrest, leaving the Secretary of Defense, Luis Crescencio Sandoval (LCS), with the report of what happened. Many speculated that he didn’t really know what was happening; Others affirmed that the capture operation was organized and coordinated by United States security elements that would have forced the president to order the Army and the National Guard to carry it out. But it has been one way or another, the truth is that the arrest of the member of “Los Chapitos” represents a triumph and a recovery from the stain that meant releasing him years ago, amid contradictory versions and suspicions.

So why didn’t he show off this catch more? Additionally, any intervention by the United States in the arrest has been officially denied and the affectations and terror that occurred among the population are minimized. It is even presented as a “routine” operation, in the words of the president himself.

There are two things that also attract attention. The first is the deployment that took place. It was an operation like those of before, in the times of Calderón and Peña, with helicopter gunships and enormous firepower. This is something that at some point it was said that it would not be done like this. What was it that forced López Obrador to make this decision? Biden’s arrival? Perhaps the press is not mistaken and it is an offering to the US president, an attempt to show that in Mexico the drug is fought and that there is no complicity with him.

The second is the weak or absent reaction of the political parties to the events that occurred in Sinaloa. There is no reading beyond that presented by the media. Of course, there is also no open and frank support for the government. Not even MORENA reacted on the same day 5.

Necessary question: is the fear of a serious reaction from the drug trafficker greater than the recognition of the capture? Perhaps that is why the president does not want to brag too much, it is possible that he has broken the implicit agreement that he had with the cartels.

#YoDefiendoAlINE.