How Mexican Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Guzman was Killed, and then Wasn't Manuel Rueda - ABC/Univision
go to original February 25, 2013

Soldiers patrol in San Valentin in Guatemala´s remote El Peten region, near the border with Mexico. (Moises Castillo/AP)

It seems that Mexican drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán is alive and well, and probably laughing at those thousands of Twitter users, as well as some government officials, who suggested on Thursday that he was dead.

The rumors of his demise started slowly on Thursday afternoon, as journalists in Guatemala and Mexico exchanged emails about an incident in the remote jungle region of El Peten that might have involved Guzmán.

News of the supposed death of El Chapo, which means "Shorty" in Spanish, spread like wildfire Thursday evening when the Interior Minister of Guatemala told journalists in that country that a firefight between drug dealers and Guatemalan military personnel had resulted in the death of two suspected criminals. The conflict took place in San Francisco, a small town located in the El Peten region, the official said.

"There was a clash between Guatemalan security forces in San Francisco," Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said on Thursday. "Two died. One of them is physically very similar to El Chapo."

"We are not sure, but it could be him, " Lopez added, according to Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre. The newspaper also said at that point of the night, the government was getting ready to conduct forensics tests that would help identify the two corpses.

Later on the same night, however, Guatemalan officials said they weren't even sure that a gunfight with drug dealers had occurred. Officials also said that military units were patrolling the area where the clash reportedly happened, to see if they could find any signs of a battle between the army and drug traffickers.

Read the whole story at ABC/Univision

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