Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Photo credit: CNS The bishop of one of Mexico’s most violent areas has said that the sentencing of drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera to life in prison plus 30 years is proper and prudent.
Guzmán, known as ‘El Chapo’, is a former head of the Sinaloa Cartel. He was sentenced on July 17 by a judge in New York, after having been found guilty of 10 charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
“I believe there is justice by God and human justice,” Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza of Chilpancingo-Chilapa told ACI Prensa.
“I believe he was properly judged. I have more confidence in American laws than Mexican, and I believe that they judged it to be prudent to give him life in prison plus 30 years,” Bishop Rangel stated.
Guzmán’s sentence “is the fruit of the criminal acts he committed, and in particular I believe this should help many other criminals to see that sooner or later they will have to face justice and that we all have to answer for the evil deeds we have done”, the bishop said.
“I believe it’s a just sentence given to that man and especially so it’s an example for everyone else.”
“Hopefully this will also rein in crime a bit here in Mexico,” he added.
Prison
Guzmán had been captured by Mexican authorities in 2014, but escaped from a maximum-security prison in July 2015. He was re-captured in January 2016, and extradited to the US in 2017.
In addition to his prison sentence, Guzmán was also ordered to pay $12.6 billion (€11.2bn) in forfeiture.
The Department of Justice said that the drug trafficker’s trial brought out the methods used by the Sinaloa Cartel to transport tons of drugs to the United States as well as the violence the organisation “relied on to maintain its power throughout the region and beyond”.
Mexico faces much violent crime, often related to drug trafficking. According to the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, 15 of the 50 most violent cities in the world during 2018 were in Mexico.