“Mica” for Borderlandbeat.com
Ovidio Guzmán López, alleged leader of a faction of the Sinaloa cartel, refused to be represented by ex officio lawyers and, instead, asked to be defended by a group of three individuals who have experience in the legal defense of his father and even a former Morena official.
These are the lawyers Alberto Díaz Mendieta, Juan Clemente Morales and Julio Seguro García, who at the moment are part of the triplet of professionals who will defend the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, former leader and founder of that criminal group.
As for the group that currently heads his legal case, there is lawyer Alberto Díaz Mendieta, who has a law degree from UNAM and has already defended the interests of “El Chapo” on at least one occasion.
In particular when he was the titular defender of Víctor Manuel Félix Mendieta “El Vic”, who was the operator of Joaquín Guzmán and in charge of the financial operations of the cartel in Mexico City, Jalisco and Sinaloa, until before his escape from the Southern Prison in 2020.
Díaz Mendieta, who also has a master’s degree in Criminal Law, was also employed by the former Secretary of Health of San Luis Potosí and Morena’s candidate for governor of that entity, Mónica Rangel.
The former official requested the legal assistance of the lawyer in April 2022 when she was accused of fraud, criminal association and abuse of functions, irregularities for which she finally pleaded guilty in May and was able to be released from prison after reaching an agreement with the authorities.
Another of Ovidio’s defenders is Juan Clemente Morales, who, like Díaz Mendieta, has a law degree from UNAM. There are few indications of him about his professional career, however, according to Proceso magazine, in 2015 he was part of the legal representation of “El Chapo”.
Although he is not identified as one of the main actors in the defense of the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Clemente Morales was one of the seven professionals who worked for the boss in the period when he escaped from the Altiplano prison, a prison in which his son was hospitalized yesterday.
The last of the defenders known is Julio Seguro García, but there is no information about him in the National Registry of Professionals of the Ministry of Public Education, so his academic background and his ID number are unknown.
Today, after leaving the audience in the Altiplano, the only one who gave statements to the press was Alberto Díaz Mendieta, who sees it likely that a larger team will be integrated to face the next hearing that will be held within no more than two months.