The Mexican government reported this Friday that the extradition to the United States of Ovidio Guzmán, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán most wanted by the United States and recently stopped, it will be slowsince he also faces criminal charges in Mexico.

“(Extradition) is a process. The request is made by the Government, in this case by the United States, but the evidence has to be presented and that’s it. the judges decide in Mexico“referred to the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in his daily press conference.

Furthermore, the president insisted on his extradition It will not be done on the fast track.

For her part, the head of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), Rosa Icela Rodríguez, explained that Mexico has elements to bring Ovidio Guzmán to court for crimes against health (drug trafficking) and related to weapons from fire. .

Furthermore, he said that there are also investigations related to the possibility that the detainee and other people have committed offenses related to organized crime.

“Of course, the above is independent of what transpires in the events that occurred in connection with his arrest,” he said.

The request for extradition to the United States

The United States, which presented the extradition request in 2019, accuses the drug trafficker of crimes involving the conspiracy to commit drug trafficking in that country, Rodríguez explained.

The foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, added that, after placing the detainee at the disposal of a judge, the extradition mechanism has a deadline within which the requesting country must present criminal evidencewho estimates that in the case of the United States it will take four to six weeks.

Once such evidence has been brought before the judicial authority, the decision on extradition will be taken by the judge and by the Registry headed by him.

“It is not a political decision, only of the Foreign Ministry, but essentially of the judge, to verify that the rights of that person are respected, given that he is a Mexican citizen,” he commented.

The arrest of Ovidio Guzmán

Ovidio Guzmán was arrested in the early hours of last Thursday in the northern state of Sinaloa during an operation by the Mexican armed forces, which caused violent unrest in various parts of the region and in which about ten soldiers and 19 members of organized crime were killed.

Subsequently, he was admitted to the Federal Social Rehabilitation Center (Cefereso) number 1 Altiplano -also known as Almoloya prison-, located in the State of Mexico, where his father was detained and from which he escaped in 2015.

The arrest was surprising as it occurred just days before US President Joe Biden’s visit to Mexico for the North American Leaders Summit, although López Obrador he denied any connection between the two facts.

Source: EFE