Mexico's president criticized for shaking hands with El Chapo's mother during coronavirus pandemic


Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is pushing back at critics questioning his decision to travel on Sunday to Badiraguato, the hometown of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
While in Badiraguato, López Obrador met El Chapo's 92-year-old mother, María Consuelo Loera Pérez. Video shows López Obrador shaking hands with her while she sits in a car, and saying, "Don't get out," The Guardian reports.
His trip to Sinaloa state came one day after Mexico's deputy health minister asked citizens to stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19, and Lopéz Obrador's decision to visit with El Chapo's mom while traveling was a double whammy for people like journalist Pascal Beltrán del Río, who tweeted, "It is very hard to understand what the president did today in Badiraguato." Lopéz Obrador, he added, "failed to keep a healthy distance — in more than one sense."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Badiraguato is in a poor region, and López Obrador has promised to lift people there out of poverty. On Monday, he tweeted he was in Sinaloa to "connect with marginalized communities and villages," and later accused conservatives of turning this non-issue into a scandal. "Sometimes, because it's my job, I have to give my hand to white-collar criminals," he said. "So how could I not give it to an old lady?"
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
September 14 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful north
The Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to Trump
Speed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raids
Speed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raid
Speed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'
Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearing
Speed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mount
Speed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own list
speed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battle
Speed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants