US Watching Structure of Current Mexican Underworld After Release of Drug Lord's Son Lorne Matalon - Fronteras Desk
go to original August 23, 2016

View of the facade of restaurant "La Leche" on August 17, 2016 in Puerto Vallarta, where Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, son of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was kidnapped among other five clients. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)

When the son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán and five others were abducted from a restaurant on Mexico's Pacific coast last week, analysts said revenge attacks would follow.

The younger Guzmán is wanted by the United States for alleged drug trafficking while working for his father's Sinaloa Federation.

Saturday, Guzmán was released unharmed reportedly after negotiations with the cartel that took him. Alfredo Guzmán, 29, was eating at a restaurant in Puerta Vallarta, Jalisco in the early morning on Aug. 15, when masked men brandishing machine guns entered. Guzmán was ordered to his knees.

The moment was captured by security cameras, a gripping image in a country where the elder Guzmán once seemed untouchable. Alfredo Guzmán was taken, but others with him were not. That suggested someone was sending a targeted message to fill a vacuum at the top of an empire of organized crime.

The governors of Jalisco and Nayarit, which borders Jalisco, both said they were preparing for violence following the abductions. Then Saturday Alfredo Guzmán and the five taken with him were released.

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