Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has allegedly ordered to protect the country’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after he shook hands with the criminal’s mother, the Daily Star reported. According to the newspaper, Guzman’s family representative Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza said that the drug lord had told his cartel to protect the president whenever he enters the state of Sinaloa. The statement was reportedly made during an interview with Radio Formula. Meza said El Chapo viewed the president as a humanist and Christian after he accepted his mother’s letter and shook her hand.
Last week, a video emerged showing the president, commonly referred to by his initials AMLO, shaking hands with the 92-year-old mother of El Chapo, who was sitting in a car. "Don’t get out, I got your letter", the president reportedly said.
In the letter, El Chapo’s mother asked the president to help her visit her son in prison in the United States.
The news caused uproar among Mexicans, with people accusing AMLO of breaking social distancing rules and shaking hands with an elderly woman during the coronavirus outbreak. Others said that the president’s handshake was insulting to the victims and those who have suffered from drug cartels.
AMLO defended his actions by saying that it was a matter of respect. "Sometimes I have to shake the hand of white-collar criminals and I have never lost your respect, who am I to refuse to shake the hand of a lady. An elderly person deserves all my respect, no matter who her son is", he said.
Before his arrest in 2016, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was the head of one of the largest and most dangerous drug cartels in the world. During his trial, a witness claimed that Guzman had paid $100 million to former Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in order to stop the manhunt for him.