Ovidio Guzmán receives bad news about his extradition

• The judge makes a drastic decision.
• El Chapo’s son is denied protection from extradition.
• Why was Ovidio Guzmán’s request denied?

Ovidio Guzmán, the son of the famous drug trafficker, Joaquín «El Chapo» Guzmán Loera,  received bad news just days after his controversial arrest in Mexico. A judge had granted an injunction for the alleged drug trafficker not to be extradited to the United States.

However, after El Ratón was granted protection, an inconsistency could change the fate of the man who was arrested in the midst of a wave of violence, drug blockades and shootings, sparking what was called on social media,  the «second culiacanazo”.

Why was Ovidio Guzmán denied protection?

El Chapo’s son’s arrest occurred a few days before Joe Biden’s presidential visit to Mexico. However, both the US and Mexican administrations denied that the timing of Guzmán’s capture was a «gift» to the US. AMLO anticipated that the process would take time.

Now Judge Julio Veredín Sena has declared the appeal that sought to stop his extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for multiple crimes, inadmissible, due to an inconsistency regarding the signatures on the forms, according to Sin Embargo.

What will happen to the Mexican?

Veredín Sena, attached to the Seventh District Court for Appeals in Criminal Matters of Mexico City dashed the Mexican’s hopes — at least for the moment — of stopping the extradition process for which the United States would have to submit a new request.

Otherwise, a Mexican judge said that El Chapo’s son could be released. Apparently, the signature on the certificate did not match those on the other appeal proceedings that were filed last week. The judge asked El Ratón’s defense team to ratify his demand.

Shortly before this, he received good news

A few days before, Juan Mateo Brieba de Castro, Sixth District Judge of Appeals in Criminal Matters, granted a new suspension to Ovidio Guzmán’s extradition process. «Since the suspensions decreed in file 24/2023 were left without effect, and since the complainant did ratify the claim that gave rise to this trial, in order to safeguard the rights of the complainant, it is considered necessary to activate the suspension outright,» decreed the judge, according to Excelsior.

The appeal, known as an «amparo» in Spanish (like the one that was denied to Ovidio Guzmán) is the trial for the protection of human rights ‘par excellence’ in Mexico. «The amparo protects people against general rules, acts or omissions by public authorities or individuals…» states Mexican law.

AMLO sends message to judges

«I also take this opportunity to call again the ministers of the Court, the members of the Council of the Judiciary because there are still unjustified releases by judges. These people are arrested and released and it is always the same excuse: The file is wrongly integrated. Even in the case of Ovidio, they were already claiming that the time did not match, so judges don’t think that we’re going to remain silent,» said the president, according to Latin US.

«The defense was claiming that, the time, the same as always, the investigation is poorly integrated, even when it’s a matter of public domain. Everyone knows that it was a confrontation and that ten members of the Army lost their lives and that there was also, unfortunately, loss of life in the group dedicated to crime. But they’re alleging the timing as a central element for the defense or to request his release, no, it’s an excess,» AMLO stated.