Reports indicate that family members of the imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán fled from Mexico to the United States for protection from warring cartel factions.
Although U.S. officials have not confirmed reports of Griselda López, El Chapo’s ex-wife, arriving in the United States with her family, posts on X and various web sources mentioned rumors earlier this week that Griselda López and at least 16 members of her immediate family had turned themselves over to Customs and Border Protection authorities at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Griselda López Pérez, at 65, was born on August 19, 1959, and goes by the alias Karla Pérez Rojo. She was the second wife of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, with whom she had four children: Joaquín, Édgar, Ovidio, and Griselda Guadalupe.
Griselda Lopez is the mother of Ovidio Guzman, who is in U.S. custody and is set to plead guilty to federal charges. He will presumably cooperate with U.S. authorities. Some speculate that Ovidio may have already given valuable information and struck a deal to import his close family members under the witness protection program as part of a deal. Many believe that Griselda’s seeking refuge in the U.S. indicates that the Chapitos are losing the war against Los Mayitos.
Mexico’s defense secretary, Omar Garcia Harfuch, said in a recent Grupo Formula En Vivo interview with Ciro Gomez Leyva, “We must first highlight that Ovidio was 100% arrested in an operation conducted by the Mexican Army Special Forces. Once the Mexican army arrests Ovidio, Mexico delivers him for extradition to the United States.”
“As we all saw in the news, Ovidio began negotiations with the Department of Justice of the United States, and it is evident that his family is leaving for the United States because this negotiation is an opportunity that the Department of Justice has given them,” he stated.
Harfuch added:
Let’s also remember that this conflict in Sinaloa involves Ovidio and his brothers, who have pointed to other groups of criminal organizations. What is happening is an agreement between the defendant, Ovidio Guzman, and the United States. The 17-person family that left was neither objective or sought after by the Mexican authorities. Of course, the United States Department of Justice must share information with Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office. I repeat that those who stopped Ovidio are the Mexican Army, so that’s why, with the information you have, the 17 people who left were Mexican citizens who did not have an order of detention, with nothing stopping them from exercising their freedom to cross the United States. That’s how it was, that’s how it is, and they were already waiting for them in the United States.
No current official records in Mexico actively link her to organized crime; however, she is listed in the OFAC, which indicates a different assessment by the United States government.
In September 2012, the Treasury Department included her on its list of foreign drug trafficking leaders under the Kingpin Act, categorizing her as a key facilitator of the Sinaloa Cartel. She allegedly provided material support to her then-husband, Joaquin Chapo Guzman, and helped him evade justice.
In January 2023, when federal forces captured Ovidio in Culiacan, Sinaloa, witnesses pointed out that Griselda López paid for the funeral expenses of the cartel gunmen who died during the shootout. “It was reported that Griselda Lopez spoke to the funeral homes and took care of all the expenses of whoever was involved in the shootout against Mexico’s federal forces,” said a testimony published by El Sol de Sinaloa.
Unlike Alejandrina Salazar Hernández, El Chapo’s first wife and mother of Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, El Chapo reportedly devoted more time to Griselda and her children, which likely led to resentment in Alejandrina. Griselda and her children were considered Chapo’s closest family.
Dámaso López Serrano, alias “El Mini Lic,” revealed that Iván and Jesús Alfredo held resentment towards Griselda, considering that she showed disdain towards them and favored their children. This fracture between lineages of the same father generated internal tensions that would later influence the leadership dynamics within the Los Chapitos organization, currently led by Ivan and Jesus Alfredo.
In May 2010, Griselda was arrested in Culiacán during a federal operation coordinated by the Mexican Navy, the Army, and various federal authorities. The operation included coordinated searches of numerous buildings directly linked to El Chapo Guzman. Griselda was reportedly transferred to SIEDO (Specialized Deputy Prosecutor’s Office in Organized Crime Investigation) in Mexico City. Not surprisingly, she was released in less than 24 hours. Although Griselda was not formally prosecuted, she has since been under surveillance and subject to financial sanctions.
At the same time, US intelligence reports began to designate her as a key piece in the management of Sinaloa Cartel resources and illegal front companies.
For years, Griselda López has been described as a maternal and protective figure who tried to keep her children out of violence. After the brutal murder of her son, Édgar Guzmán López, in 2008, in a shopping center in Culiacán, she attempted to send her two remaining sons, Ovidio and Joaquín, to Canada, seeking to keep them away from danger, according to “El Mini Lic.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum recently told reporters that she was unaware that Ovidio and the US government had removed his family members from the country.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart News Foundation traveled to Mexico to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate throughout Mexico if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles are published in English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “Diego Cervantes.”
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