Is This El Chapo? (¿Es El Chapo?)

Shit!

Sam!

Shit!

- We have a shootout right now on the street

here in downtown Culiacán, or near downtown Culiacán.

I'm not quite sure what happened.

We have the municipal police and the federal police.

We just heard some gunshots.

This is what happens during a cartel war;

at any given moment, broad daylight, it doesn't matter,

gunfire can erupt at any possible second.

You really have to be on alert when you're in Culiacán

because of the violence, because of the drug war

that's going on right now in the United States.

It's a war on people here in Mexico, a drug war in the USA.

We're on the streets of

downtown Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

It's a very quiet Thursday night in May of 2014.

This city is the homebase of the largest

and most powerful drug organization in the world,

the Sinaloa cartel.

And this city was rocked in February of 2014,

when their hero, their son, was taken down.

One report has it that El Chapo Guzmán is responsible

for about 80 thousand dead Mexicans.

A senior US law enforcement official

tells us it was a joint operation.

In Mexico's biggest border city, nobody is surprised

the US played a key role in

Joaquín "Chapo" Guzmán's capture.

They had to work with Mexico,

because that's only way they gonna catch him.

- They tracked him from the Sinaloa cartel's stronghold,

Culiacán, to the resort city, Mazatlan,

and surprised the kingpin named "Shorty"

as his beauty queen wife was cooking breakfast.

The DEA, Homeland Security investigations,

and US marshal service provided critical information

to pinpoint the location.

We've been told by a senior US law enforcement official

who has knowledge of the joint operation, that Mexico gave

the Americans permission to operate in the country,

but also set a limited time frame: about a month.

As the deadline was about to expire, Mexican marines

closed in on Chapo.

- Tonight we're getting a new look at where El Chapo was

staying when he was caught.

This is the Miramar condos in Mazatlán,

you can see there's a nice view from the rooms,

but were they the digs of a billionaire?

Hardly.

We checked it out on travel websites, and condos here

rent for as low as $89 during the slow season.

- Across Mexico, Chapo's capture

is front-page news, and Juárez people can hardly believe

the most-wanted cartel leader is in custody.

Guzmán has waged a bloody battle against rival cartels

to control nearly every key smuggling route.

In the border city, Juárez, alone, the death tole:

10 thousand people in the span of about five years.

- The FBI confirms the majority

of drug loads arriving from Juárez now belong to El Chapo.

Forbes magazine put Guzmán on its annual billionaires list.

- Guzmán is accused of leading

the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, an empire that stretches

throughout North America and reaches as far away

as Europe and Australia.

- How does a billionaire get caught,

under the most ordinary circumstance?

A man with so much power, and who supposedly has 200 armed

guards surrounding him at all times, how does he get caught

so easily at the Miramar condominiums?

- I continued my research at

the University of Texas at El Paso.

I was curious if Americans believed

whether it was the real Chapo Guzmán.

- You know what, it's really hard to tell.

I mean I would like to think so.

I have faith, I have trust in our government

that they did what they could to capture him.

- I think that they have the real person in custody,

because it would be a huge embarrassment

to the United States and to the government of Mexico

if they didn't, and the real Chapo Guzmán emerged.

- If it were the real Chapo Guzmán, I'm thinking he

would be dead by now, actually.

I don't think they'd take him, and without any

type of resistance from him or the people around him.

- Not really, but if it is him, it's just a public stunt,

you know, it's to make the new presidency look good.

You know, if I can be able to capture this drug lord,

I can do anything.

So I don't think it is him, but if it is him,

it's just for that.

- Do you think it's the real Chapo Guzmán

they have in custody?

- Yes, I do, because President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico

has been bragging about how he's lessening the violence of

the drug war, and so he wants good public relations,

he wants to catch a top drug lord to prove

to the United States and the Mexican people

that he's actually winning the war

against cartels in Mexico.

- A lot of people in El Paso don't think it's him.

What's your reaction to that?

- My reaction to that is that it's typical of the attitude

of many people that are connected to Mexico,

that they don't trust their government,

they don't trust the authorities,

and they don't believe the official version.

In this particular case, I think the official version

is true, because I think the Mexican president

and the government has a vested interest in catching

a figurehead like Chapo Guzmán that they can parade

in public and say that they're doing a great job

and fighting crime in Mexico.

But most Mexican people do not believe in their leaders

and their government, and that's why

there's so much distrust of this capture of El Chapo.

- What percentage of Mexico do you think

likes Chapo Guzmán, or even loves Chapo Guzmán?

That's a good question.

I do think that because of the nature of the injustices

of Mexican society, the inequalities,

that Robin Hood type social bandits,

like Chapo Guzmán in a sense is,

sometimes have a lot of support,

especially in regional areas like Sinaloa,

where they provide a lot of jobs

and revenue for local people.

And so many people in a place like Sinaloa may believe

more in El Chapo Guzmán than they do

in the actual president of Mexico.

- My family in Juárez, they talk bad about the cartels and

El Chapo, and my family who lives in Culiacán,

they're singing praises to them.

And to me, it's like, their base is there,

and where they go to do their dirty deeds

are over near the border.

And that's why we get to see more violence.

To me, that's what I believe.

- Four days after his arrest,

the people of Sinaloa made their point.

- Despite being responsible for reportedly

80 thousand dead Mexicans,

the man is loved by so many people.

Why is that?

I interviewed renowned author, Javier Valdez Cárdenas,

who has received several international awards

for his writing on drug trafficking and organized crime.

- In Mexico, cartel leaders are revered, feared,

loved, and respected, not because they kill people,

but for other reasons.

One example is Jesús Malverde.

- A lot of Mexican people blame former

president, Felipe Calderón, for the spike in violence.

Just 10 days into his campaign in 2006,

Calderón declared war on the drug cartels,

unleashing the federal army and the federal police

into the trouble spots of Mexico.

Unfortunately, these two groups,

rather than quell the violence, may have aggravated it.

- Back in Culiacán, we interviewed the editor of

Noroeste, the major newspaper there, Francisco Cuamea.

This is a very mysterious war.

We're not exactly sure who's in charge,

there's a state of paranoia, a state of distrust.

Are the police killers?

Politicians?

Your neighbor?

We're not exactly sure who's who in Mexico,

because the corruption level runs so deep.

What we do know is over 100 thousand Mexican people

have been slaughtered, and 95% of those murders

are not resolved.

27 thousand have gone missing.

The next three scenes are perhaps the most powerful

during the drug war.

If everybody in the United States knew about these moments,

perhaps there would've been a movement from Mexico by now.

- The reported arrest of Chapo Guzmán

has not appeared to help the average Mexican citizen.

Was Chapo Mexico's economy?

Who stands to benefit from his arrest?

Could it be current president, Enrique Peña Nieto?

My name is Anabel Hernández.

I am Mexican investigative journalist.

I have been investigating the Sinaloa cartel

about nine years.

The war against the drugs doesn't exist

in Mexico, and neither in the US.

Really, I think that the governments don't want to fight

that issue, because it's a huge business for everyone.

In this fake war against the drugs,