Los Chapitos set to appear in a Chicago court for a crucial hearing

The sons of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán are preparing for a hearing that will determine their future. Joaquín and Ovidio Guzmán have been summoned to appear before Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Tuesday to state whether they maintain their innocence or plead guilty to avoid going to trial in the Northern District Court of Illinois, in Chicago. This is the first time that both brothers, two of the four Chapitos, will have a joint hearing in the United States. On the other side of the border, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán are fighting a battle against the men of Ismael El Mayo Zambada ― their father’s former partner ― for control of the Sinaloa Cartel, which has sown panic and chaos in Culiacán, the stronghold of the criminal organization.

Joaquín Guzmán López, alias El Güero, unexpectedly turned himself in on July 25 near the border city of El Paso. The 38-year-old drug trafficker was not the only one to disembark from a small plane at a small rural airport in New Mexico; his godfather, El Mayo, did as well. Zambada, co-founder and top boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, had not been arrested in more than five decades of criminal activity, and two weeks later he accused Guzmán López of betraying him, kidnapping him and taking him against his will to the United States. The capture marked a milestone in the war on drugs, but it raised tensions with the Mexican government, which was not informed of the arrest until it was made and has since demanded that Washington clarify what happened. The White House has acknowledged that it has been secretly negotiating for years with members of the cartel’s leadership to seek their surrender, but maintains that it was not aware that El Güero intended to do so.

The blind spots in the story of the capture have fueled versions that the fall of El Mayo was a conspiracy by Los Chapitos to benefit Ovidio Guzmán El Ratón, extradited to the United States in September 2023, and to get Zambada out of the way to gain control of the criminal organization in Mexico. The hypothesis has gained traction among Mexican authorities, who named El Güero as the main suspect in the kidnapping and announced that they were investigating El Ratón’s possible participation in the plan.

The Guzmán family’s lawyers have been adamant and have denied the alleged betrayal, but the controversy is still very much alive. After a month and a half of tensions, a war broke out in Sinaloa between both factions on September 9. Nearly four months after the beginning of hostilities, more than 600 people have been killed in the state in the northwest of Mexico, according to official data.

El Ratón, 34, reappeared in Chicago federal court on October 21 for the first time since the arrest of his older brother and El Mayo. At that hearing, Los Chapitos’ lawyers acknowledged that their clients were considering pleading guilty and had begun talks with the Prosecutor’s Office over a possible plea deal. A plea bargain does not mean that the Guzmán brothers would automatically collaborate with the U.S. justice system, but it brings that possibility closer. In any case, the hearing on January 7 is key to the strategy of their legal team. El Chapo’s heirs are facing a battery of charges for drug trafficking, money laundering and illegal possession of firearms.

Meanwhile, El Mayo is due to have his next hearing in New York a week later, on January 15. The 77-year-old drug lord last appeared in court in October, just a few days before El Ratón, visibly diminished physically. His lawyers have not closed the door to any possibility regarding the decision to go to trial or reach a plea bargain with the American justice system. It is expected that at his next appearance before Judge Brian Cogan ― the same one who sentenced El Chapo to life imprisonment in 2019 ― there will be a discussion about whether he can have the same legal representative as his son Vicente Zambada Niebla aka Vicentillo. The latter went from being a preferred successor to a protected witness. He was a key figure in the trial against El Chapo Guzmán and was released from prison in 2021.

This week, however, all eyes are on Los Chapitos, who remain in prison in Chicago, the next scene of Washington’s offensive against the Mexican cartels. The hearing comes two weeks after Donald Trump returns to the White House with the promise of cracking down on organized crime and increasing pressure on the Mexican government to keep the drug traffickers at bay. Two families are at the center of the new crossroads in the two wars being waged against drugs: the one besieging Mexico and the one being fought in the United States courts.

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