Second leak Joaquin Guzman Loera "El Chapo"
'El Chapo' Mythology Grows in Drug Lord's Home State of Sinaloa
By Hans-Maximo Musielik and Daniel Hernandez
"Good person" is how the minister of the Apostolic church in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, describes Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Francisco Villa Gurrola, in an interview with VICE News in his church, said he knows Guzman's mother and has met the drug lord, a native son of Badiraguato and now the most wanted man in Mexico — again — after his spectacular escape from a maximum-security prison.
"He is a good person," Villa Gurrola said confidently. "He is not a person who threatens, intimidates. He knows how to converse, knows how to speak. As an individual, I recognize him as a good person."
Such views are common in Chapo's home turf of Sinaloa, the narrow western state on the Pacific that is the historic and cultural center of Mexico's modern narco industry.
Guzman rose through the ranks of the Sinaloa federation, got arrested in 1993, and then escaped another maximum-security prison in 2001. He became the most feared capo in the country by the time Mexican authorities captured and jailed him once more in February 2014.
Nearly 17 months later, he did the implausible: escaping again through a mile-long tunnel fitted with a motorbike. Ten days later, Guzman is still at large.
Villa Gurrola is an old acquaintance of Guzman's mother, Maria Consuelo Loera, whom he referred to "a great Christian, a great woman." He said he met and spoke with the infamous drug lord once about three years ago.
In a fifteen minute conversation, the pastor invited Guzman to join his church. The drug lord told Villa Gurrola he'd think about it.
By Hans-Maximo Musielik and Daniel Hernandez
"Good person" is how the minister of the Apostolic church in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, describes Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Francisco Villa Gurrola, in an interview with VICE News in his church, said he knows Guzman's mother and has met the drug lord, a native son of Badiraguato and now the most wanted man in Mexico — again — after his spectacular escape from a maximum-security prison.
"He is a good person," Villa Gurrola said confidently. "He is not a person who threatens, intimidates. He knows how to converse, knows how to speak. As an individual, I recognize him as a good person."
Such views are common in Chapo's home turf of Sinaloa, the narrow western state on the Pacific that is the historic and cultural center of Mexico's modern narco industry.
Guzman rose through the ranks of the Sinaloa federation, got arrested in 1993, and then escaped another maximum-security prison in 2001. He became the most feared capo in the country by the time Mexican authorities captured and jailed him once more in February 2014.
Nearly 17 months later, he did the implausible: escaping again through a mile-long tunnel fitted with a motorbike. Ten days later, Guzman is still at large.
Villa Gurrola is an old acquaintance of Guzman's mother, Maria Consuelo Loera, whom he referred to "a great Christian, a great woman." He said he met and spoke with the infamous drug lord once about three years ago.
In a fifteen minute conversation, the pastor invited Guzman to join his church. The drug lord told Villa Gurrola he'd think about it.
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