- In February 2007, Sandra Ávila Beltrán was arrested in Mexico City after months of persecution. She recently broke her silence in an interview with José Luis Montenegro.
- During the interview, Beltrán expressed her belief that the children of drug lords should enter politics if they have the intention of helping their communities. She also emphasized that drug trafficking is not limited to just selling drugs and weapons but that there are also “good people” involved.
- Beltrán’s statements generated controversy and evoked the case of Misael Torres Urrea, son of a drug lord, who won a union seat in Cosala, Sinaloa. Despite the violent history of criminal organizations in Mexico, Beltrán believes that if these people want to do something good for their country, they should have the opportunity to hold public office.
In February 2007, Sandra Ávila Beltrán was arrested by authorities as she left a restaurant in the south of Mexico City after months of persecution.
A little more than 15 years after that event and after having spent seven years and five months in prisons in the United States and Mexico, the so-called Queen of the Pacific reappeared in a controversial interview with José Luis Montenegro in which she broke her silence not only about the details of her arrest and the role played by Felipe Calderón and Genaro García Luna in her case but also about the current panorama of the drug trafficking world in Mexico.
The niece of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was asked if she agreed that the children of organized crime bosses should want to enter politics, a controversial question to which the Queen of the Pacific answered “yes” without hesitation.
“There is an emblematic case. Misael Torres Urrea, the son of Javier Torres Felix, ‘El JT,’ ran for and won a union seat in Cosala, Sinaloa. Do you think it’s good that the sons of big capos get involved in Mexican politics?”
“Yes,” Avila Beltran replied.
In his recent interview, Jose Luis Montenegro questioned Sandra Avila Beltran’s opinion that the new generations of drug traffickers, such as Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, El Chapo’s son, have aspirations to enter Mexican politics.
Although due to the violent history that criminal organizations have left in their wake in Mexico, such a premise could be considered crazy, for the Queen of the Pacific, it is not frowned upon for the sons of important drug lords to be concerned about the citizenship from the public administration itself.
“Can you imagine if they, some of those people you just mentioned, said: ‘I want to do something different for my country,’ ‘I don’t want to be what my father did,’ ‘I want to show that my father is not as bad as they think, I am going to do something good for my country, for my people, for my state…’,” Ávila Beltrán answered José Luis Montenegro.
Likewise, the Queen of the Pacific confessed that if she had the opportunity to occupy any public position, she would be concerned about helping the citizens and the neediest people of the community or town she would lead.
“You think that there are no people who think about it. I would do it. I would like it. If they said to me: ‘If you are a councilwoman of such and such a town, do you think I would want to harm? I want to be there to help. To be able to say: see that it is not drug trafficking that is bad, that it is not bad people, that there are very good people, with great hearts, people who help humble people, those who have nothing, those in need”, argued the niece of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.
Sandra Ávila Beltrán made special emphasis on highlighting -from her perspective- that drug trafficking is not only limited to the sale of drugs and weapons that usually attract media attention but that there are also “good people” behind it, which is why she would like them to hold public office if they intend to help their communities.
The Queen of the Pacific’s statements generated great controversy among the public. However, they also evoked the case of Misael Torres Urrea, son of Javier Torres Felix, alias El JT, a lieutenant of Ismael El Mayo Zambada.
Torres Urrea, alias “M2″, served as a trustee of La Llama in the municipality of Cosala, Sinaloa. It was in March 2015 when he was sworn in after being the only candidate to participate in the plebiscite for the election of municipal trustees.
However, even though he was the only candidate, the “M2″ campaigned in the police stations of the syndicate and even appeared in a photograph taken by City Hall staff during a meeting he held with a mayor.