Mexico president tells gangs to stop handing out coronavirus aid

MEXICO - Mexico’s president has acknowledged that drug cartels have been handing out care packages during the coronavirus pandemic, urging them to end violence instead of distributing food. Imploring criminals to behave better, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared on Monday that the care packages filled with basic foodstuffs and cleaning supplies were not helpful. “These criminal organisations that have been seen distributing the packages, this isn’t helpful. What helps is them stopping their bad deeds,” he told reporters at a news conference. The leftwing president, who has advocated a less confrontational approach than his predecessors in taming raging cartel violence, said gang members should refrain from harming others and instead think of the suffering they cause to their own families and the mothers of their victims. Videos posted on social media last week showed one of the daughters of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Alejandrina, handing out boxes of rice, pasta, cooking oil and toilet paper with Guzman’s image printed on them under El Chapo’s 701 brand, a company founded by her. “We are working and contributing. A great pleasure to visit your homes and give you these Chapo handouts,” said a post on the company’s Facebook page, that was later removed, showing Alejandrina, wearing a black face mask with Chapo’s face, handing out parcels. Beyond the Guzmanlinked Sinaloa cartel, other gangs have similarly courted publicity with care packages for mostly poor residents, including the Jalisco New Generation

and Los Durango cartels. Photos posted on social media on Monday showed heavily armed members from both handing out packages including toilet paper and shampoo. In the case of Alejandrina, while El Chapo’s son is said to have taken over some criminal operations, there is no indication that El Chapo 701 is involved in illegal activity.

(Aljazeera)