Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers by Roberto Saviano Read Free Book Online

took El Chapo’s statement, he was head of that same police force. 1 They say you never forget a lesson well learned, but on this occasion Álvarez was in luck: El Chapo Guzmán, very inexperienced in the ways of police detention—it seems this was his first time—proved to be highly cooperative, without the general having to apply the least pressure.
    One of the passengers on the Boeing 727 noted that the Guatemalan military had not only stolen $1.5 million from El Chapo — as he himself complained in his first statement to the military police—they had also given him a good beating. According to this account, El Chapo was so grateful for the treatment he received, compared with what he got in Guatemala, that he offered no resistance to General Álvarez’s questions.
    “On the contrary, we had to kick him to shut him up, he wouldn’t stop, he wanted to spill all the beans,” recalled the passenger.
    El Chapo spilled rather too many. It was undoubtedly the most spontaneous declaration of his whole criminal career. He wouldn’t be so indiscreet again until fifteen years later, in 2008, when he hadanother conversation with a general, this time at the pinnacle of his power as Mexico’s top drug baron.

El Chapo’s confessions
    The declarations made by El Chapo Guzmán on June 9, 1993, were recorded in dossier 1387 of the Military Attorney General’s Operational Subdivision, under the title “Report on the interrogation of Joaquín Guzmán Loera (alias) El Chapo Guzmán.”
    Four pages long, it was addressed to the then military attorney general, Brigadier General Mario Fromow García, written by General Guillermo Álvarez Nahara and witnessed by the two cavalry officers present.
    As he listened to what Guzmán had to say, Álvarez understood that this testimony was pure dynamite and would send shock waves through the government. Guzmán began with the story of what happened on May 24, 1993, at Guadalajara International Airport, and ended up telling on all his accomplices.
    El Chapo said that on that day he went to the airport with his bags packed to go to Puerto Vallarta, one of his favorite towns to party in. 2 In the airport parking lot his blue Century stopped, blocking the way of other cars, while he calmly alighted. Suddenly, the accountant Martín Moreno, who was traveling with him, warned that there were armed men getting out of various vehicles. With extraordinary presence of mind, Guzmán threw himself to the ground and crawled all the way into the terminal building.
    Of the eight people with El Chapo, two were killed, two were arrested in Guatemala, and four others were captured by the Federal Judicial Police a few days after the incident. “None of my men fired because their weapons were in the bags that had already been checked in,” El Chapo explained to Álvarez. With this account, the trafficker blew apart the story that Carpizo and Carrillo Olea had tried to sell to the public, namely that Cardinal Posadas had been the victim of crossfire between the Arellano Félix gang and that of El Chapo Guzmán.
    A few days after the murder, the evening news on Televisa—which always toes the official line—showed a reconstruction of the eventsby way of a slick animation prepared by Cisen and Cendro. Those involved in this production were all close to Jorge Carrillo Olea.
    According to the account given by Guzmán in the Boeing 727, after escaping from the airport he went to Mexico City and lay low in Martín Moreno’s house. There a certain commander “Gómez” fixed him up with a false passport and drove him to San Cristóbal de las Casas, capital of the southern state of Chiapas, where a contact “put me in touch with Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Rosales of the Guatemalan army, who was going to help us there.” However, El Chapo continued, the Guatemalan officer didn’t help him but instead handed him over to the Mexican authorities, after relieving him of $1.5 million.
    In his confession to General