President Biden and the Secret Service must be happy that he is landing in Mexico City rather than Culiacán on the Pacific coast. It has gotten very complicated in Culiacán in the last few days.
This is the story:
Just days before U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Mexico, the country was thrown into turmoil as alleged cartel members blocked off an airport and areas outside a local army base, and limited access to the city of Culiacan, in an unsuccessful effort to thwart the capture of drug trafficker Ovidio Guzmán.
Mexican security forces captured Guzmán, the son of infamous Sinaloa drug lord known as “El Chapo,” in a predawn operation Thursday. Guzmán is wanted by the U.S. for his involvement in the cartel’s activities.
The chaos spurred gunfights across the northwestern state’s capital ahead of Biden’s scheduled two-day visit on Jan. 9 for bilateral talks with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the North American Leaders’ Summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
So what’s going on? Why did the Mexican government decide to go after El Chapo’s son with President Biden on his way?
It could be a coincidence, since this is not the first time that Little Chapo has encountered Mexican troops. Maybe they got lucky this time and got their target. On the other hand, Guzmán is in the middle of the production of illegal fentanyl. He is not the only one, but he is a major player. My guess is that he will join his father in a prison in the U.S.