While Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is serving life plus 30 years in a federal supermax prison in the United States, the former cartel leader’s daughter is making sure her father’s name lives on during the coronavirus crisis.
Alejandrina Guzmán is distributing boxes, stenciled with her father’s image, of provisions including sugar, soups, beans, toilet paper and cooking oil to the elderly in Guadalajara.
Guzmán, who heads up the clothing and alcohol brand El Chapo 701 — thought to be named for her father’s ranking as number 701 on the list of the world’s richest people by Forbes magazine in 2009 — has been using her father’s likeness as a marketing tool since launching her business in 2018.
Her website, where she sells hoodies emblazoned with the El Chapo logo for around US $78, describes her father as a “humble orange seller with many goals and ambitions. Proud of his roots, a friend of all, a willing, attentive and ever-present leader for his people.”
Alejandrina Guzmán’s company uses social media to identify those in need, highlighting El Chapo 701’s mission of helping the underprivileged, “our older adults, who have taught us a legacy of respect and traditions.”
Facebook videos show a crew packing up and distributing boxes while wearing masks. “We are working and contributing. A great pleasure to visit your homes and give you these Chapo handouts,” reads a recent post.
Cartels, which are finding drug manufacture and smuggling increasingly difficult as travel has shut down, have seized upon the coronavirus pandemic as a public relations tool.
In Michoacán, the Viagras cartel distributed around 300 boxes of provisions.
In Tamaulipas, gun-toting members of the Gulf Cartel handed out boxes stamped with the message “Gulf Cartel in support of Ciudad Victoria.”
And the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, considered to be one of Mexico’s deadliest, distributed coronavirus provisions in early April in eight municipalities in San Luis Potosí. The boxes and bags were emblazoned with a sticker bearing the cartel’s initials and a message: “from your friends, Covid-19 contingency support.”
Source: Reforma (sp)
