Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that her government studies a repatriation request from Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, member of the Sinaloa Cartel currently prosecuted in the US.
Mexico analyzes a request from the Ismael “El May” Zambada, member of the Sinaloa Cartel that is under process in the United Statesfor repatriation and that his trial takes place in Mexican territory, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday.
The president confirmed that the Mexican Consulate in New York received a letter from Zambada in which she requested the support of the Government and is being reviewed.
“No one is defending the character,” said Sheinbaum. “Beyond the person and their crimes … the issue is how this arrest occurs,” he said.
According to the newspaper Reforma, which published this Friday the content of the document, Zambada denounces in the brief that the United States did not verify the legality of its entry to the country and, in addition to requesting to be tried in Mexico, asks the government to intercede to prevent states United can impose the death penalty.
In addition, he says that if the Mexican government does not fulfill its obligation to ensure the rights of its citizens that could damage relations between the two countries.
“El Mayo”, one of the leaders of the oldest and most cunning Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in July in Texas where he arrived in a private plane with Joaquín Guzmán López – one of the children of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán perpetual in the United States) – and that was also wanted by US authorities.
Subsequently, Zambada denounced in a letter that was kidnapped by Guzmán López and the Mexican government opened an investigation for the crime of betrayal against those who supposedly delivered it.
However, there is no news that the Mexican capo argued in its audiences that there was an illegal arrest. Zambada is accused of several positions, including the criminal association to manufacture and distribute fentanil, and in January US prosecutors indicated that they were discussing a possible guilt agreement with the drug trafficker.
Mexico can ask the United States not to apply a penalty prohibited by its laws, such as the death penalty, but usually the United States only allows repatriation if the process and the sentence against the affected person has already completed or for a political decision.
Precisely the latter occurred in November 2020 (at the end of the first presidency of Donald Trump) when the United States withdrew the charges for drug trafficking against the former secretary of the Mexican Defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos, which was returned to Mexico and, later, later, later, later, exonerated from any crime.
In the case of Zambada, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) denounced that US authorities had not given all the information they had about the private flight that led the capos to Texas, where they were arrested.
The Mexican Federal Prosecutor then began to analyze whether a crime of betrayal would have been committed. According to Mexican legislation, this crime includes attacking Mexico in the name of a foreign power or serving a foreign army, but it is considered that it commits betrayal “who illegally deprives a person in the national territory to deliver it to the authorities of Another country or transfer it outside of Mexico with such a purpose. ”
The entire operation still has many points without clarifying and triggered an internal war between the followers of Zambada and the faction of the cartel led by the children of “El Chapo”.