El Chapo's Son's Arrest and the Way it has Changed the Political Climate in Mexico

According to media reports, on January 5, Ovidio Guzmán (the famous El Chapo’s son) was arrested by Mexican authorities in Sinaloa, Mexico in an operation involving 200 special forces and that led to the deaths of 29 people in one day. Vehicles were on fire in the streets and cartel soldiers fought with police. A Mexico City federal judge paused Ovidio Guzmán’s extradition. The Culiacán airport was closed for a day following a plane being hit by gunfire (no passengers were harmed). All of this occurred days before a visit by U.S President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the North American Leaders Summit.

As we have seen with the violence following the arrest of Guzmán, who, according to abc news is an alleged Fentanyl trafficker, he has a near-cult following. Back in October 2019, Guzmán was arrested but when word got out about his arrest, there were shootouts in the streets. To avoid any further bloodshed, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered Guzmán released. The fact someone who has likely caused thousands of deaths and has influence and power over a large number of people was released shows the problems that the Mexican government has with corruption. But Mexico is not the only country to have problems with influential people being allowed to get away with causing violence and committing crimes. You can look at any news site and see influential people all over the world are doing terrible things and getting away with it. Society must hold these powerful people accountable for their crimes before things get too out of hand. As the photo of January 6, 2021 hints, that's true here, too.