Was Mexican Drug Kingpin El Chapo Guzman Killed?

Dolia Estevez, Contributor

I cover Mexico's billionaires, politics and U.S.-Mexico relations

Although there is no official confirmation  in the Unites States,Mexico or Guatemalathat Mexican billionaire Drug Kingpin El Chapo Guzman could have been killed in Guatemala, the rumor spread faster than lightning throughout cyberspace.

Asked what he knew,  Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson Rusty Payne responded by e-mail,  “Everything is just rumor. I have nothing to report.”  Pressed whether DEA was involved in trying to confirm the rumor, Payne said,  “We certainly weren’t involved in the firefight. I am sure we will find out at one point.”

The story broke late on February 21 when Guatemalan authorities said that  they were investigating whether Guzman was one of at least two men killed in the Peten, an area bordering  Mexico controlled by the Zetas, a rival gang to El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel. While it is not clear what led officials to think that one of the dead men could be El Chapo,  according to the Guatemalan media, local residents reported a gun battle between drug gangs and said one of the dead “resembled”  the world’s most-wanted drug lord.  As I’m writing this post,  AP is reporting that the Guatemalan government “apologized”  for what it called a “misunderstanding” about  an alleged shootout where El Chapo might have been killed.

Analysts in Washington  questioned whether the leader of the world’s biggest narcotics cartel  looks anything like he did in the only known pictures of him, wearing a heavy sky jacket. The pictures were taken many years ago. Not only are they outdated, but Mexican drug criminals  in the past  have used surgery to change their physical appearance.  El Chapo is now believed to be 55 to 59 years old.

"El Chapo" Named "World's Most Powerful Drug Trafficker"Erin CarlyleForbes Staff

In light  of the confusion, Washington analysts took the news with caution.  “It’s very important not to jump to conclusions. There needs to be a full investigation,” said Eric Olson, an expert on Mexican security at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Olson added that while El Chapo has well established networks in Central America,  “he has proven to be a very slippery person.”

Meanwhile, in Mexico,  Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong called the report  ”rumors”  and said that  it has not been possible to determine where they came from.

In 1993,  El Chapo was arrested in Gautemala and extradited  to Mexico, where he was indicted and jailed on drug charges and murder. In 2001,  he escaped from a high security prison in Mexico after bribing prison and law-enforcement  authorities. Ever since, he has proven to be one of the most elusive criminals in modern times.  A week ago,  the Chicago Crime Commission and the DEA named Guzman Chicago’s Public Enemy #1,  a title held by Al Capone during Prohibition.

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman: Most-wanted drug lord suspected dead in shootout By Simeon Tegel and Jill Langlois, GlobalPost Posted:   02/22/2013 08:18:21 AM PST Updated:   02/22/2013 08:23:39 AM PST Earlier this month, Chicago even officially named the elusive 5-foot-6-inch druglord, whose "El Chapo" nickname is Mexican slang for "shorty," public enemy No. 1. It's the first time in eight decades, since Al Capone terrorized the Windy City, that authorities there have officially used that term. Nevertheless, if one of the corpses at the scene of the shootout in Guatemala's jungle region of Peten does turn out to be Guzman, it's unlikely to stop the flow of cocaine into the US any more than the death of Escobar did. Behind Guzman, crime analysts say, is a long queue of brutal, highly ambitious lieutenants eager to take their turn at the top of the Sinaloa cartel. And most experts believe as long as demand for cocaine remains strong in the US, Europe, Asia  and increasingly in Latin America, particularly Mexico and Brazil, the trafficking is unlikely to stop. LIMA, Peru - Most-wanted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is suspected to be dead after a shootout in Guatemala near the Mexican border.Guatemalan authorities said Friday they are investigating the possibility a man killed in the shootout was 58-year-old Guzman, but later backtracked, saying they hadn't yet located a body or even confirmed there was a gunfight, the Associated Press reported. If confirmed, the death of Guzman could be the highest-profile blow to the international cocaine trade since Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar died in a hail of bullets in a shootout with security forces in Medellin in 1992. As head of the ruthless Sinaloa cartel, Guzman, said to have amassed a personal fortune of $1 billion, is thought to be responsible for the deaths of thousands, mainly in Mexico but also in the US and elsewhere in Latin America. Forbes recently him the world's 63rd most-powerful person and is widely viewed as the Western Hemisphere's most-wanted criminal. Indeed, many analysts now believe Guzman is a more powerful and dangerous operator than Escobar ever was. That is in part because under his ruthless leadership the Sinaloa cartel has achieved what experts call "vertical integration" of the cocaine supply chain, with its tentacles stretching from the remote Andean regions where coca is grown into the heart of the world's largest cocaine market - the United States.