Mexican President Greets El Chapo's Mother Ignoring Pandemic Rules

By Rodrigo Cervantes
Published: Monday, March 30, 2020 - 3:16pm
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U.S. State Department
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president has been criticized after constantly ignoring instructions from his own government to face the coronavirus pandemic. And on Sunday, he broke the isolation and social distancing rules again — this time with the mother of a notorious drug lord.  

During a tour in the state of Sinaloa, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador visited Badiraguato, the birthplace of the cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

On a video circulating on social media, López Obrador is seen shaking the hand of El Chapo’s mother, María Consuelo Loaera, saying that he got her letter.

In the letter, El Chapo's mother pleads for the president’s intervention to get a visa from the U.S. to visit her imprisoned son. 

The video also shows one of El Chapo’s alleged lawyers, José Luis González, talking to the president and putting his arm around him.

The president’s visit to Badiraguato happened during the birthday of Ovidio Guzmán, el Chapo’s son who was held and immediately freed last year in Sinaloa during a confrontation between the government and cartel members.

López Obrador blamed his conservative opponents for making a big fuss about him greeting a 92-year-old lady.

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