HomeNewsBrief'Chapo Guzman' Uses Guatemala, Honduras as Hideouts: Report
BRIEF

'Chapo Guzman' Uses Guatemala, Honduras as Hideouts: Report

EL CHAPO / 31 AUG 2012 BY TRACEY KNOTT EN

Reports suggested that Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman uses Guatemala and Honduras as hideouts, aided by his connections to political elites in the Central American countries.

According to US and regional anti-drug officials consulted by El Universal, Joaquin Guzman, alilas “El Chapo,” has been using Guatemala and Honduras as a hideout and base of operations. The newspaper reported that the infamous leader of the Sinaloa Cartel has allegedly attended parties in Copan, a western province of Honduras, and established connections with corrupt security officials, politicians and businessmen in the two countries.

Mauricio Lopez, the Guatemalan interior minister, denied the newspaper’s claims, calling them “a rural legend.” However, El Chapo’s presence in the region was confirmed in 2010 by the Honduran minister of public security, who admitted that El Chapo had been in the Central American country.

InSight Crime Analysis

The Sinaloa Cartel is known to have stepped up its presence in Central America recently. In June, Guatemalan authorities arrested an alleged Sinaloa Cartel operative, who is believed to have served as a link between the Mexican cartel and a Guatemalan crime family, the Lorenzanas. The Sinaloa Cartel is also suspected of using Guatemala as a base for large-scale methamphetamine production.

El Chapo has also been rumored to use Argentina and Bolivia to hide from authorities. Argentine media reported that El Chapo began living in the country with his wife and stepdaughter in 2010, and left in March 2011 when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) began pursuing an arrest order. Meanwhile, the Bolivian government is investigating whether the drug kingpin and his son at some point sought refuge in the Andean country.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCA / 10 FEB 2023

Guatemala is dealing with the rapid expansion of coca leaf plantations, but there is little evidence the country is becoming…

BRAZIL / 24 MAR 2022

The 2021 ranking of the world's most violent cities predictably features a heavy presence by Latin American and Caribbean population…

ELITES AND CRIME / 21 AUG 2023

Bernardo Arévalo won Guatemala's presidential election. But he will face more challenges from political elites before taking up the post.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…