María Consuelo Loera, mother of 'Chapo' Guzmán and grandmother of 'Los Chapitos', dies

María Consuelo Loera, mother of Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín Chapo Guzmán, died this Sunday at the age of 95 due to health complications after undergoing an operation in a private hospital in Culiacán, the capital of the state of Sinaloa (Mexico).

According to information from those close to the family and local media, María Consuelo Loera died 20 days after undergoing gallbladder surgery.

The mother of the drug lord - and grandmother of the Chapitos - had been trying for years to get a humanitarian visa to visit her son in prison in the United States. One of the episodes of her initiative to visit her son raised controversy in Mexico, when, during a visit by President López Obrador to the State of Sinaloa in March 2020, there was an affectionate greeting between the elderly woman and him. AMLO justified this act as a humanitarian gesture towards the woman: "She deserves all my respect regardless of who her son is," said the Mexican president.

Despite her attempts, the old woman was unable to visit her son in prison. However, she did witness in recent years how the US authorities persecuted four of her grandchildren, who were left at the head of the Sinaloa cartel after the imprisonment of Chapo Guzmán. They are known as Los Chapitos, and among them is Ovidio Guzmán López, who was extradited this year to the United States.

After her death, María Consuelo Loera was transferred to La Tuna, her hometown and the place where drug lord Joaquín Chapo Guzmán grew up.