A son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was among a group of men hauled at gunpoint from a restaurant in the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, authorities have confirmed. The abduction was seen as a possible sign the power of the imprisoned drug lord is waning and a new cartel is trying to take his place.



Officials in the western state of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located, originally said that as many as 12 men had been taken early on Monday morning, but prosecutors later clarified that six were abducted during a celebration at La Leche restaurant on the city’s main boulevard.

The Jalisco attorney general, Eduardo Almaguer, told reporters Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 29, was among those abducted as they dined.

Earlier in the day Almaguer had told Radio Formula it was “presumed” that the victims had included a different son of El Chapo – his eldest, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar.

Newsweekly Proceso quoted family members saying Iván Archivaldo had been kidnapped in Puerto Vallarta, but that was not confirmed by the authorities either way on Tuesday evening.



Almaguer said authorities suspected the kidnappings were carried out by the upstart Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – once El Chapo’s allies, but now considered rivals of Guzmán’s long-dominant Sinaloa cartel and thought to be covetous of his enormous criminal empire.

CJNG is considered the largest faction operating in Jalisco though it is a relatively new criminal organisation which has has grown to become one of the biggest players in the country’s drug wars. The cartel has become notorious for mobilising narcobloqueos, in which vehicles are commandeered, burned and used to block thoroughfares.



The kidnapping of El Chapo’s son could mark a major shift in the structure of the underworld, as rivals squabble over a leaderless criminal empire reputedly responsible for smuggling tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin into the US and around the world.

“The Sinaloans are stuck in the middle of criminal conflicts and without authorities that have the ability or the will to protect them,” said Adrián López, editor of the El Noroeste newspaper in El Chapo’s home state of Sinaloa.

Until recently such a brazen challenge to Guzmán’s authority would have been unthinkable but they appeared to be occurring with some regularity, López said.

“His enemies are taking advantage of his distraction with extradition and his weakness. After his third arrest he has been weakened even more. It seems like he employed a lot of resources in the last escape,” said López.

Guzmán is being held in a prison in the border city of Ciudad Juárez awaiting extradition to the US follow his recapture in January.

His two escapes from maximum security prisons and his ability to evade recapture had underlined El Chapo’s apparently limitless power and influence in Mexico – but he is now under pressure both from legal authorities and from his drug-trafficking rivals. His lawyers have said he is kept under constant guard to prevent a third escape.

The apparent abduction of his eldest son comes just two months after armed men ransacked the Sinaloa home of Guzmán’s elderly mother, Consuelo Loera Guzmán – another once-unthinkable provocation.

Some analysts blamed that attack on Guzmán’s erstwhile allies, the Beltrán Leyva cartel, seeking revenge for the 2008 betrayal and death of one their leaders, Alfredo Beltrán.

Iván Archivaldo is believed to have contributed to the instability by clashing with other members of the Sinalao cartel’s remaining leadership, including the veteran kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

Since Guzmán’s arrest in January hundreds have been forced to flee spiralling violence in Sinaloa state and López warned that the apparent abduction of one of his sons could make matters worse.

“Without doubt it’s bad news for security conditions in Sinaloa and the north-east of the country,” he said. “If it is confirmed that the kidnapping of one of Guzmán’s sons … by the [CJNG] we would add a new and powerful enemy for the Sinaloa cartel.”

Jesús Alfredo appeared to be involved with his father’s activities and accompanied actors Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo for their encounter with El Chapo last fall in the hills of Sinaloa.

“He’s handsome, lean and smartly dressed, with a wristwatch that might be of more value than the money housed by the central banks of most nation-states,” Penn wrote of Jesús Alfredo in a sprawling account of the encounter for Rolling Stone.

Penn also included an anecdote of soldiers allowing them passage through a checkpoint upon recognising Jesús Alfredo.

Iván Archivaldo was briefly mentioned in the Penn story too – “At 32 he is considered the heir to the Sinaloa cartel. He’s attentive with a calm maturity.”

Iván Archivaldo is identified as a suspect in the 2004 murder of a Canadian exchange student who was ambushed as she left a Guadalajara-area nightclub. A 2005 psychological evaluation found the younger Guzmán showed “probable psychological violence toward persons that he does not consider on his socio-economic level”.

Iván Archivaldo and his peers, known as narco-juniors, belong to a generation of crime figures who have grown up accustomed to exaggerated displays of wealth, unlike their forebears – such as El Chapo – who often came from humble backgrounds.

A Twitter account with his name has attracted 127,000 followers and features a cover photo of sports cars parked in a garage, though its authenticity is not verified.

With the Associated Press