The unanswered questions in the Julio César Chávez Jr. case

“Thank you, president, thank you for stepping into the ring against addiction,” said Julio César Chávez, the five-time boxing champion and national icon in Mexico, to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum during the morning press conference on March 28, where a mass boxing class aimed at deterring drug use was announced.

Sheinbaum smiled as the boxer presented her with a watch from the World Boxing Council. Today, those smiles seem to have vanished. Nearly 100 days after that scene, the arrest of Julio César Chávez Jr. — boxer and son of the former champion — for immigration issues has exposed a pending arrest warrant in Mexico from 2023. The case links him to the Sinaloa Cartel and has opened a new flashpoint in the already strained relationship between the two countries.

There are many questions, but the main one is: how was a man wanted by Mexican authorities for over a year able to move freely on both sides of the border? Which country failed to act — and why? Which security agencies looked the other way? These are just some of the unanswered questions surrounding the boxer’s arrest. In Mexico, the answer seems clear. “The United States knew exactly who he was, knew he was a criminal, and did not detain him,” said Alejandro Gertz Manero, Mexico’s Attorney General, on Tuesday, placing the blame on the U.S. for the inconsistencies in the case.

The charges against Chávez Jr. in Mexico are serious: organized crime and arms trafficking. According to Gertz Manero, the investigation by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR), launched at the request of the U.S. government, links Chávez’s eldest son to the Sinaloa Cartel — a criminal group designated as a terrorist organization by the Trump administration and currently mired in internal war between factions.

“They had all the information needed to arrest him, and it was their responsibility,” Gertz said. “He was there, they had reported him, they had presented the evidence, and they knew exactly what was happening. So much so that they arrested him, and the current U.S. authorities are now accusing the previous ones of failing to act.”

The Chávez case has placed the Mexican government in a difficult position. The investigations — according to Gertz — began in 2019 and were driven by the U.S. government. President Sheinbaum has claimed she was unaware of them.

In contrast, the Chávez family did know, said Julio César Chávez in an interview with El Heraldo. When asked if he was aware of the arrest warrants, the former champion replied: “Yes, we were informed, but that was about three years ago. There was never any summons, no phone call… Strange that it’s only now coming to light, right?”

Julio César Chávez Jr.’s movements between Mexico and the United States — despite an active arrest warrant — his high-profile fight against Jake Paul in Anaheim, California, which was broadcast the day after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ordered his deportation, and the apparent concealment of the investigation in Mexico have raised a number of unanswered questions.

“Why did they let my son fight if he was a criminal?” Chávez Sr. asked, questioning the motives behind the U.S. government’s decision to detain his son now.

The family’s ties to the Guzmán clan have been acknowledged by both father and son. “Ovidio Guzmán, ‘El Ratón’ [son of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán], is the uncle of the girl who has been like a daughter to me for a long time. I know him well — he’s a great person to me,” Chávez Jr. said during a live broadcast in 2022.

In the same video, he said that he socializes with many people, including El Chapo’s son: “I get along well with Ovidio, though we don’t really see each other. I care for him a lot and I don’t want to know anything about what people say about him. I’m not interested.”

The patriarch of the Chávez dynasty has said the same. “Do I know those people? I do. And so what? I know them too, and that doesn’t mean I’m a drug trafficker. But hey, everyone does their job, and that deserves respect,” he said.

The head of the Chávez family has expressed similar views. “Do I know those people? Yes, I do,” he said.

The political undertones that may be behind the boxer’s arrest remain uncertain. Gertz Manero, like Chávez Sr., has also hinted at this possibility. “The information provided by the American authorities has been very clear: they knew he had an arrest warrant, that he was able to live and was settled in the United States, that he had gotten married. All that information was available. Why did they use it now, and why did they do it in this way? That is their responsibility,” the Attorney General concluded.

The Mexican government is awaiting the immigration hearing that will determine the details of Chávez’s deportation to Mexico, where the prosecutor’s office is already waiting to enforce the arrest warrant.

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