Mexico president shakes hands with El Chapo’s mother, making exception to coronavirus precautions

‘I’m not a robot’, says López Obrador, adding it would have been disrespectful to reject gesture from drug lord’s elderly parent

María Consuelo Loera Pérez, 92, had written to president saying she does not want to die before seeing her son, who is imprisoned in US

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María Consuelo Loera Pérez, mother of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leaves the US embassy in Mexico City in June after requesting a humanitarian visa to visit her imprisoned son. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:52am, 31 Mar 2020Updated: 5:52am, 31 Mar 2020

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says it pains him to not be able to embrace supporters during his tours due to the risks of the coronavirus, but he made a remarkable exception on a weekend trip, shaking hands with the elderly mother of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán.

López Obrador was visiting a motorway project in the western state of Sinaloa Sunday on a road that passes the town of Badiraguato where María Consuelo Loera Pérez lives.

López Obrador said on Monday he was told she had come to the event and wanted to greet him. After the event, he went to the passenger side door of her vehicle and she extended her hand through the window.

Asked about shaking her hand at the time the government is urging citizens to practice social distancing, López Obrador said it would have been disrespectful not to. “It’s very difficult humanly,” he said. “I’m not a robot.”

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by army soldiers to a waiting helicopter at a hangar in Mexico City in January 2016. Photo: AP

He said she asked about a letter she had sent him in March asking the government to intervene in her request to be allowed to travel to the United States and visit her son in prison.

López Obrador said she told him she did not want to die without seeing him. He said she was 92 years old.