People march in support of jailed drug boss Joaquin Guzman Loera, “El Chapo” in the city of Culiacan, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. Hundreds of people marched on the streets of Culiacan, the drug lord’s bastion, demanding that Guzman be freed, before they briefly clashed with police who fired tear gas at them. AP
CULIACAN – Some 2,000 people demonstrated in support of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in his northwestern home state Wednesday, chanting “release him” following his weekend arrest.
Dressed in white and accompanied by a folk band, the protesters marched in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan before some 200 police officers dispersed them. One young man was injured in the head amid a shoving match.
In Mexico City, federal prosecutors filed new organized crime charges against the Sinaloa cartel leader, who has been held in the country’s highest-security prison near the capital since his arrest Saturday.
The march, which included men, women and students, began in a church on a hilltop overlooking Culiacan and culminated in front of the city’s town hall amid shouts of “Viva El Chapo.”
One sign held by the protesters read: “Joaquin Guzman gave jobs, not like you corrupt politicians.”
A homemaker from Culiacan’s blue-collar district of Las Coloradas said “El Chapo helps companies that support those in need.”
“El Chapo prevents other rival cartels from entering Sinaloa,” said the 30-year-old woman, who refused to give her name.
Anonymous fliers were found throughout the city earlier in the day, calling on residents to demonstrate for “the release of El Chapo, hero of Sinaloa.”
Although “narcocultura” – the veneration of drug cartels through song and film – runs deep in Sinaloa, it was the first known protest in favor of Guzman in the city of 675,000 people.
As people marched, drivers raised the volume in their cars to blast the sounds of “narcocorridos,” or folk ballads that have been composed in his honor.
Messages of support for the 56-year-old cartel leader appeared on Twitter, too, with the hashtag #ILoveChapo.
Mexican marines had nearly captured Guzman in one of his Culiacan homes a week earlier, but he fled through a tunnel hidden under a bathtub that was connected to the city’s drainage system.
The marines, backed by intelligence provided by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, found Guzman further south in the resort of Mazatlan.
He was staying with his beauty-queen wife and two-year-old twin daughters in a condominium when he was arrested without a shot being fired after 13 years on the lam.
Federal judges ordered Tuesday that Guzman face trial on organized crime and drug trafficking charges. US prosecutors plan to seek his extradition.
The attorney general’s office announced that it was pursuing additional charges of organized crime, drug trafficking, bribery and possession of illegal weapons.
A man described as his “personal assistant,” Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramirez, was charged with illegally carrying an assault rifle reserved for military use when he was arrested with his boss.
Guzman was among 12 people detained in an operation against the cartel between February 11 and 22, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
The operation netted 133 firearms, 311 cartridges, two grenade launchers, one rocket launcher, two rockets, two explosives, nine grenades, 43 vehicles and 14 homes.
Authorities seized 3.1 tons of methamphetamine, 82.2 kilograms of cocaine and 25.6 kilograms of marijuana.