LATIMES.COM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019A
Apply Today!
Call (818) 565.
Purchase or Refinance —We have the tools
to finance your next investment property.
We have a variety of loan programs that can help you save on
your commercial real estate purchase!
■Loan programs with rates as low as 4.13%
■Loan term up to 15 Years
■No Loan Origination Fee options available
■No Pre-Payment penalties
Who says that getting a commercial real estate loan has to be
hard? At Logix we’re lending money to help your business grow.
A dedicated loan officer will work with you every step of the way
to deliver exactly what you need.
4.13% accurate as of 10/22/19 and is subject to change. Terms and conditions apply. Not all products
offer a 15-year term. Minimum loan amount is $500,000. Call for details. Logix membership required.Logix Federal Credit Union, proudly serving members since 1937.Rates As Low As
Attention Commercial
Real Estate Investors
RETAIL. OFFICE. INDUSTRIAL.
4.
There’s a Logix Branch in Your Neighborhood
Santa Clarita Valley San Fernando Valley Conejo/Simi Valleys San Gabriel/Antelope Valleys
Bridgeport • (855) 564.4914 Burbank • (866) 350.5328 Newbury Park • (877) 944.5328 Palmdale • (855) 564.
Golden Valley • (866) 786.5328 Chatsworth • (866) 740.5328 Simi-Cochran St • (888) 738.5328 Pasadena • (855) 564.
Stevenson Ranch • (855) 564.4918 Porter Ranch • (866) 788.5328 Simi-Tapo Cyn • (877) 974.
Valencia Bouquet Cyn • (855) 564.4919 Tarzana • (855) 564.4917 Thousand Oaks • (877) 964.
Valencia Promenade • (866) 748.5328 Woodland Hills • (855) 564.4916 Westlake Village • (866) 400.THE WORLD
MEXICO CITY — It is an
extraordinary video — a be-
hind-the-scenes look at
what happened this month
when Mexican security
forces briefly captured one
of the world’s most-wanted
cartel leaders.
In the clip, which was re-
leased Wednesday by Mexi-
co’s defense secretary, Ov-
idio Guzman Lopez is shown
surrendering to soldiers who
had trapped him in a home
in the northern city of Culia-
can.
Instead of putting Guz-
man in handcuffs and im-
mediately taking him into
custody, the soldiers instead
waited while he made a
phone call.
Outside, fighters from
Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel
were seizing control of the
city, taking hostages, block-
ing intersections with burn-
ing vehicles and laying siege
to a housing complex for the
families of military person-
nel. The soldiers, who at that
point probably knew they
had no clear way out, asked
Guzman to order his men to
stand down.
“Tell them to leave now!”
a soldier is heard shouting at
the 28-year-old Guzman,
who is the son of notorious
drug boss Joaquin “El
Chapo” Guzman.
The video shows the des-
peration of authorities dur-
ing the failed operation to
capture the younger Guz-
man, who is wanted in the
United States on drug traf-
ficking charges.
Eventually, the soldiers
freed Guzman and re-
treated, a decision that Mex-
ican President Andres Ma-
nuel Lopez Obrador has de-
fended as necessary to save
lives.
The video was part of a
detailed presentation by
Defense Secretary Luis
Cresencio Sandoval, who
used maps, diagrams and
photographs to explain to
reporters how cartel gun-
men overpowered elite secu-
rity forces with paramilitary
tactics and an arsenal of
machine guns and home-
made tanks.
He showed a graphic vi-
deo of one soldier who had
part of his leg blown off by
bullets and a photograph of
another who had been taken
hostage, his eyes shielded
with a blindfold.
The presentation
seemed designed to suggest
that authorities had no op-
tion other than to release
Guzman. “The most impor-
tant thing is the protection
of citizens, the protection of
lives,” Lopez Obrador said.
Still, much has not been
made public about the failed
operation, most notablywho ordered it.
Neither Sandoval nor
the president took ques-
tions.
In the aftermath of the in-
cident, top officials changed
their story repeatedly, say-
ing at first that soldiers had
happened upon Guzman
while on a routine patrol.
Later, they acknowledged
that the operation had been
planned, but suggested that
it had been carried out by
rogue security forces who
had not received authoriza-
tion from their superiors.
Many in Mexico doubt
that claim, saying that top
military officials would have
known about an operation of
this magnitude.
Lopez Obrador has said
he was also unaware of the
operation to target Guz-
man.
Another key question has
to do with the legal basis of
the operation. Authorities
lacked a search warrant
when they entered Guz-
man’s property, which made
the raid illegal from the be-
ginning, according to multi-ple experts.
Officials had attributed
the delay in removing Guz-
man from his home to the
lack of a warrant, saying sol-
diers were forced to wait af-
ter capturing Guzman for
one to be issued.
On Wednesday, Sandoval
also blamed “the rapid reac-
tion of criminals, attacks on
military personnel and their
families and the intention of
the criminal group to cause
damage to the population.”
There were other crucial
blunders. Not only did au-
thorities underestimate the
firepower of their foes, they
also carried out the raid in a
place that made a safe exit
for soldiers almost impos-
sible.
Culiacan, a city of just
under a million people about
an hour’s drive from the Pa-
cific Ocean, has long been a
stronghold of the Sinaloa
cartel. And the home where
Guzman was captured is in
the Tres Rios neighborhood
at the end of a cul-de-sac,
which allowed the cartel
fighters to easily seal off theonly way out.
The neighborhood is bor-
dered on two sides by rivers.
By blocking a handful of
bridges and other intersec-
tions, the cartel was able to
trap security forces as well
as thousands of civilians
who happened to be in the
posh shopping and dining
district at the time.
Videos of the siege show
terrified residents caught
in the crossfire, including
scores of uniformed children
who had just gotten out of
school.
Mexico’s president has
urged journalists not to
dwell on the Culiacan opera-
tion, but critics have contin-
ued to demand more an-
swers about why the govern-
ment launched such a risky
operation in the middle of
the day in a known cartel
stronghold without proper
legal clearance.
“In an operation like this,
what you would of course
want to have is a very clear
and prepared exit plan and
strategy,” said Alejandro
Poire Romero, who served
as interior secretary under
then-President Felipe Cal-
deron.
Poire called the opera-
tion itself and the govern-
ment’s shifting explanation
of what happened “erratic.”
The botched raid has
also strained Mexico’s rela-
tionship with the United
States.
During a U.S. congres-
sional hearing last week,
Rich Glenn, deputy assist-
ant secretary of State for in-
ternational narcotics and
law enforcement affairs, said
the operation in Culiacan
raised questions about
Mexico’s dedication to fight-
ing organized crime.
“The events of last week
were very concerning to us,”
he said. “What we need to see
is greater political ... com-
mitment from the highest
levels of government in
Mexico.”Lopez Obrador pushed
back on those comments,
saying that the U.S. must re-
spect Mexico’s sovereignty
and that “officials from
other countries should not
offer opinions about internal
issues that only concern our
government.”
Under previous Mexican
presidents, the two nations
collaborated closely on mat-
ters of security, with the U.S.
spending more than $2 bil-
lion on training for Mexican
police officers and soldiers
and other anti-crime initia-
tives in recent years.
U.S. officials helped iden-
tify top drug cartel leaders
and develop plans to pursue
them.
But Lopez Obrador, has
called for a different and
more autonomous security
strategy.
This year, he declared an
end to the government’s war
on cartels and said that in-
stead he will address in-
equality and poverty and
other root causes of crime.
He has said the militarized
strategy of his predecessors
has only increased insecuri-
ty.
Lopez Obrador has also
made surprising entreaties
to members of the Sinaloa
cartel. As a candidate for
president, he visited the ru-
ral mountain enclave where
El Chapo grew up. This year
he instructed Mexican im-
migration officials to help
the imprisoned drug lord’s
mother and sisters get hu-
manitarian visas that would
allow them to travel to the
U.S. to visit him.
On Wednesday, Lopez
Obrador reaffirmed his ap-
proach even as he warned
criminal groups not to con-
fuse it with impunity.
“There is not a war
against drug trafficking,” he
said.Linthicum is a Times staff
writer and Fisher a special
correspondent.How Mexico lost grip on cartel leader
SINALOAcartel leader Ovidio Guzman Lopez, son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guz-
man, is seen surrendering in a video of his short-lived arrest in Culiacan, Mexico.Mexican Government’s Production Center for Informative and Special ProgramsA video sheds light on
soldiers’ capture and
release, under duress,
of ‘El Chapo’ scion.
By Kate Linthicum
and Steve Fisher