On Monday night, the 29-year-old Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, one of the adult sons of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was kidnapped at gunpoint from an upscale restaurant in Puerto Vallarta. Though initial reports stated that up to sixteen people were taken from the La Leche restaurant on the city’s main street, Jalisco prosecutors later clarified that six people were abducted. Jalisco attorney general Eduardo Almaguer confirmed Wednesday that Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar was among those captured.
A day before, it was suspected that another of El Chapo’s sons, 32-year-old Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán, was one of the people taken. Almaguer said Tuesday that “there is a possibility that Ivan Guzmán is among the kidnapped.” As Sean Penn noted in his Rolling Stone profile of El Chapo in January — which may have led to the drug kingpin’s incarceration — Ivan Guzmán is “considered the heir to the Sinaloa cartel.” Since his father’s arrest, Ivan is assumed to be in charge of cartel operations. Though authorities have released the names of four of the six men who were taken, they “have not commented on whether Ivan could be one of the two people yet to be identified.”
According to the Jalisco state attorney, the abductors belong to El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel’s rival Jalisco New Generation cartel. Since El Chapo has been in prison, members of the Jalisco New Generation have repeatedly attacked his Sinaloas, causing some to suspect that his long-dominant cartel may be losing its grip on the area.
(Via The Guardian & Independent)