The kidnapping of Mexican cartel leader El Mayo Zambada: Competing accounts from López Obrador and Ken Salazar
14 October 2026 at 12:48
The six-year term of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador ended in September 2024 amid a surge of violence in the state of Sinaloa — a crisis he blamed on the United States. Just a few months earlier, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the longtime leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, had been captured by U.S. authorities under murky circumstances.

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