Hundreds march in support of jailed Mexican drug lord
A crowd of young supporters demonstrated over the recent arrest of drug lord Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman, calling for his release and rejecting calls for his extradition to the US
More than a thousand people marched through the streets of the capital of captured Mexican drug lord Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman’s home state on Wednesday, calling for his freedom.
The largely young crowd, many dressed in white, bore signs that read “We want Shorty Freed” and “We demand no extradition” as they filed across the centre of Culiacan, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, to a church on a palm tree-lined plaza.
Boys donned white t-shirts scrawled with messages written in marker pen in support for “El Chapo,” his nickname in Spanish. Teenage girls in school uniform chanted “Chapo, Chapo”.
“The government doesn’t give any job opportunities,” said Daniel Garcia, an unemployed 20-year-old. “The situation is, honestly, really difficult and he helps out the young people, giving them jobs.”
Guzman, who rose from humble origins to become one of the most powerful drug barons in history, was captured on Saturday in a raid in the beachside resort and fishing centre of Mazatlan, 200km southeast of Culiacan.
President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Wednesday there would be no swift extradition to the United States for Guzman, citing the fact he still faces an outstanding prison term after staging a jailbreak in 2001, reportedly in a laundry cart.