The Arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, most famously known as El Chapo, is a former cartel drug lord who ran one of the world’s most powerful drug cartels in the 21st century. Soon after Mexican authorities captured El Chapo on January 8, 2016, his sons assumed the responsibility of the cartel’s new leader. Since then, Ovidio Guzmán López has been one of the highest-ranked members of the Sinaloa Cartel. Just this past month, after a long search for Ovidio Guzmán, Mexican authorities finally captured him on January 5th, 2023 after he was released back in 2016. Guzmán’s release sparked a major rise in violence in the state of Sinaloa and throughout Mexico. Cartel violence is nothing new to Mexico and its citizens, but with this unexpected rise, it is most definitely frightening and this leaves citizens unsure when this violence will end.

Ovidio Guzmán López runs one of the most powerful cartels in the world and is one of the most wanted drug lords. Born on March 29th, 1990, Ovidio Guzmán raised in Mexico City by his biological mother, Griselda López Pérez. Even as a teenager, Guzmán allegedly was involved in his father’s drug trafficking business since 2008. Guzmán leads the cartel along with his brothers Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, and Ismael Zambada. Mexico is known for having a long history of cartel violence and it is not the first time Mexican authorities captured and arrested Ovidio Guzmén. On October 17th, 2019, Mexican authorities arrested Guzmén in Culiacán, Sinaloa. An estimated 700 armed Cartel members immediately started to fire at citizens and ambush many buildings in the area. The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, decided to let Guzmán go in order to stop the violence surrounding Sinaloa.

On January 5th, 2023, Mexican authorities captured Ovidio Guzmán once again in the Jesús María district of Culiacán. The Navy captured him and also managed to successfully transport him to Mexico City. Mexican authorities flew Guzmán to the Federal Social Readaptation Center in Almoloya de Juárez. Moments after his arrest, cartel members blocked major highways, burned many civilians’ vehicles, attacked authorities, and instigated shootouts on outgoing flights in protest of Guzman’s arrest. 10 soldiers and 19 alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel were killed. As a result of the attacks, Sinaloa, Mexico currently has the highest levels of travel advisory warnings in the world right now which impacts the travel of many tourists who are attempting to visit family or friends in Mexico. Even though Sinaloa is under attack, Mexican authorities well expect for the violence to spread across Mexico and affect many airports.

Even with the cartel violence that continues to spread across Mexico, many tourists yearning to travel to Mexico and visit family. According to Fortunato Rodriguez, a citizen in Las Vegas, ¨I’ve been traveling there for a long time and the cartel is nothing new to me. Just don’t get involved in the cartel and stay out of their way. If you don’t bother them they would not bother you.” Many seem unbothered by the rising cartel violence and continue traveling to Mexico. Currently, Ovidio Guzmán López still remains at the Federal Social Readaptation Center, and citizens are unsure what will happen next.