The mother of convicted Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Maria Consuelo Loera, died over the weekend. Photo credit should read RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent his condolences to the family of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Monday morning following the death of the drug lord's mother over the weekend. Consuelo Loera Pérez, who was 95, died Sunday morning at a local hospital in Sinaloa, according to local news reports two weeks after being admitted with health problems. Loera Pérez lived in the small town of La Tuna, Badiraguato, where Guzman was born. El Chapo’s attorneys in Mexico confirmed her death in an interview with Mexican news outlet Milenio. One of her last public appearances was in March 2020, and sparked controversy after President López Obrador greeted her with a handshake during a visit to her town. It was during the COVID19 pandemic, and at the time she asked López Obrador for help to obtain a U.S. visa to visit her son in U.S prison, where he had been sentenced to life in prison on drug charges. Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.During his morning presser on Monday, Mexico’s president addressed the passing of Loera Pérez and sent his respects to the (Guzmán) family. “Any human being that dies deserves respect and regard to the family,” he said. Loera Pérez, who needed a visa to visit her son in the U.S., always denied El Chapo was the head of the Sinaloa Cartel. She was mother of another notorious drug trafficker: Aureliano ‘El Güano’ Guzmán Loera, who allegedly still leads one of the factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. She was also the grandmother to “Los Chapitos,” a collective of El Chapo’s sons currently in charge of a powerful faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Loera Pérez allegedly lived at her house under tight security after El Chapo feared she could be killed in retaliation from rivals, according to local news reports. In 2016, when El Chapo was behind bars in Mexico, around 150 armed men broke into her house and killed three nearby residents. No one took responsibility for the attack, according to news reports, but they stole three cars, three motorcycles and cut the telephone lines. Loera Pérez was unharmed.
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