If things weren’t already getting steamy in the trial of Joaquín Guzmán Lorea (AKA El Chapo) they certainly are now.
So far this trial has revealed gory stories of mass executions and assassinations, tales of insane drug plane crashes, and ingenious plots to smuggle literal tons of coke inside jalapeno cans. But this week things really started heating up. This week, the drug lord’s ex-mistress testified in court, revealing intimate details of their love affair, her deep desire for and dedication to the man, and described for the jury how he fucked her, exploited her and humiliated her repeatedly.
All the while, the drug kingpin’s wife, Mrs. Chapo (Emma Coronel Aispuro), sat only yards away, listening to every word.
The story of Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López is not a happy one. Born into poverty, the woman spent her childhood slinging empanadas and picking tomatoes in the blistering Mexican desert. But when she met El Chapo at the age of 21 her life took a drastic turn.
According to her testimony, López started moving bulk marijuana for El Chapo in 2010 and so began their star-crossed romance. She described their meetings at his marble floored ocean-side safe house in Los Cabos, rendezvous where the 50-year-old man and his young lover would get frisky after cannabis deliveries.
Over time her role began to change. She became a local politician in Mexico, while still working for El Chapo, still moving pot for him, establishing front businesses and meeting him covertly, to get racy between the sheets.
But as her social status as a Mexican lawmaker began to climb, her status in her relationship with El Chapo began to fester. She spent a lot of her time satisfying her older lover, and doing other menial things for him like stocking the shelves of his safe houses with skin lotion, fresh undies and tennis shoes. Part maid, part drug dealer, part side piece and part political operative, López quickly became a strange and important character in the story of El Chapo and his Sinaloa cartel.
One night in 2014, as the two were laying naked in bed together at one of El Chapo’s many safe houses, Mexican marines descended upon the home. The two were forced to escape together through a tunnel hidden beneath a bathtub (for those who don’t know, El Chapo really loves his tunnels) into a sewer system where they disappeared. El Chapo and López parted ways shortly thereafter.
The walls were closing in. And several days later, both El Chapo and his wife would be arrested.
López was impeached in 2016, losing her political office, and arrested in 2017 under the charges of drug conspiracy.
How did El Chapo’s wife take this testimony? One might wonder. How could she stand to listen to some bimbo describe the details of an intimate affair with her husband?
Well, it’s probably worth noting that, throughout this trial, El Chapo has been framed as a serial womanizer. Honestly, it’s a testament to this man’s genius that he was able to juggle so many wives and girlfriends, while simultaneously running the largest and baddest-ass drug cartel in the world. He philandered, he flirted, he adulterated, and he did so as often as he could.
His wife, Mrs. Chapo or Emma Coronel Aispuro, was well aware of all this. You don’t get married to a drug kingpin who is constantly surrounded by drugs, money and women, with the expectation of fidelity.
In fact, when Lopez testified before the court, both El Chapo and his wife appeared in matching, burgundy velvet smoking jackets. The message they were sending was clear: say all you want, bitch, we’re still together, we’re still a team and you’re just some disposable piece of ass.
It was one final indignity from El Chapo to López. One last and silent middle finger, a cold parting gift for her to chew on while she rots away her life sentence in prison.
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