Previously unreleased videos of the capture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the former leader of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, have been made public a little more than 10 years after his arrest on January 8, 2016, in Los Mochis.
In one of the videos, he is seen inside the "Hotel & Suites Doux", where he was temporarily housed in room number 51, while waiting for the Armed Forces to transfer him to Mexico City.
His capture was one of the most important due to the criminal leader's two previous escapes.
The first was in 2001 from the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, where he allegedly managed to escape by hiding in a laundry cart (although investigations suggest it was a corruption scheme within the prison).
The last was in 2015 from "El Altiplano" in the state of Mexico, where he escaped through a tunnel that had been built from outside the prison to the shower in his cell without anyone noticing.
In the next video, "El Chapo" appears alongside agents and members of the Armed Forces who question him about members of the "Los Zetas" group.
The videos were discovered by journalist Héctor de Mauleón for the newspaper “El Universal .” He had access to materials showing the last minutes of “El Chapo”’s freedom.
The escape that culminated in a hotel room
In the early hours of January 8, 2016, Guzmán Loera fled almost naked through a tunnel from his home and managed to evade a Mexican Navy operation. He was accompanied by Orso Iván Gastelum, known as "El Cholo Iván", one of his main assassins. However, a few minutes later he would be arrested in an operation that culminated in his extradition to the United States.
According to journalist de Mauleón, the two emerged from a canal in the interior, which prompted them to steal two cars to leave the area and avoid the arrest of "El Chapo." The mistake that cost them was that they were discovered by agents of the Regional Security Division of the Federal Police, who were notified by the driver of the second stolen car.
Despite pleas for help and their release, the two men were taken to a hotel room to await reinforcements and prevent "El Chapo" from being freed by gunmen. The first video released was filmed in that room, showing "El Chapo" washing his face in a sink and asking if the soap would hurt his eyes.
A second video shows him in a vehicle being transported to a hangar in Mexico City to be made available to federal authorities and begin his legal process.
In the footage, an agent asks him if he was beaten and how he feels. "El Chapo" replies: "Everything is fine. Thank you." He denies being mistreated by the agents who arrested him.
"I'm not fighting the government"
In a conversation with an agent, Guzmán Loera talks about a member of “Los Zetas” and says that the “education” among them is different because they are “thieves, kidnappers, not drug traffickers,” compared to the criminal leader himself, who says he grew up among marijuana plants and learned about drug trafficking, but not how to steal.
"No one can say I stole from them. Neither the government nor the state, so I was calm. I had nothing else. Well, as far as I'm concerned, now that I'm out, things are going well," he declared.
When asked how "things will be over there" after his capture, "El Chapo" said the person in charge was strong and did a good job, but denied that his hitmen would fight the government.
"It is not in my best interest for people to fight the government. I have told you very clearly, and I have said it before: 'This has an end.' If I fail one day, I do not want you to fight any police officer, not at all. No, there will be no fight. Not at all. I am sure there will be no fight, not at all," Guzmán Loera is heard saying.
Ten years after his capture, “El Chapo” remains imprisoned at ADX Florence in Colorado, a maximum-security prison where he is held under strict restrictions and in solitary confinement. He is currently serving a life sentence plus 30 years. ©LAPSI.al
