Dramatic video released Wednesday by Mexican authorities shows the moment Ovidio Guzman, the son of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was arrested by the Mexican military earlier this month.
The video, shot Oct. 17 from the helmet cam of a soldier, shows Ovidio being taken into custody in the city of Culiacan — only to be quickly released amid threats of a bloodbath by the Sinaloa Cartel.
“What could have become a scene of war and the shedding of innocent blood was resolved in favor of a return to peace and protecting the population,” Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said during a briefing Wednesday.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gave a blow-by-blow narration of the video at the briefing.
The footage shows soldiers moving into a building, with a young woman emerging first before Ovidio, wearing a baseball cap, emerges and begins talking on a mobile phone.
Police then put Ovidio and others in his group against the wall, while the unidentified woman appears to try to intervene with the soldiers, who are heard saying, “stay calm, stay calm.”
The government later ordered Guzman released after relatives and the drug cartel his father once ruled over threatened carnage.
Ovidio’s father ran the powerful Sinaloa cartel for years. He was convicted of trafficking in the US and is serving a life sentence.
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