El Chapo's daughter offers to take DNA test to prove identity

Rosa Isela Guzmán Ortiz responded to claims by drug lord Joaquín Guzmán’s wife questioning her family link: ‘I have a document which says I’m his daughter’

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The eldest daughter of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has offered to take a DNA test to confirm her identity, after the imprisoned drug lord’s common-law wife claimed that his family did not know her.

Last week, the Guardian published an interview with Rosa Isela Guzmán Ortiz, in which she alleged that her father had bankrolled the election campaigns of Mexican politicians, and claimed that El Chapo had visited the United States twice while on the run.

The explosive allegations caused opposition politicians in Mexico to call for an inquiry into campaign financing, but also prompted Guzmán’s partner, Emma Coronel, to issue a statement in which she denied any family link and demanded that Guzmán Ortiz take a DNA test.

Speaking to the Guardian on Sunday, Guzmán Ortiz said that Coronel and lawyers acting for El Chapo had told her to retract her claims in order to help speed up the drug lord’s extradition to the United States.

But Guzmán Ortiz said she stood by her allegations. “I’m not going to deny anything at all,” she said.

Asked whether she would be prepared to take a DNA test to confirm her relationship with El Chapo, she said: “Let them do it – I’m ready for it.

“I have a document which says I’m his daughter; [Emma Coronel] should show me the paper which says she’s his wife,” she said.

The Guardian has seen Guzmán Ortiz’s birth certificate, which names both parents, as well as several other identifying documents.

Guzmán Ortiz suggested that Coronel’s response reflected a difference of opinion within her father’s legal team over whether the head of the Sinaloa cartel should attempt to fight the charges against him in Mexico or instead seek to make a deal with US authorities in the hope of a lighter prison sentence.

Last week, one of Guzmán’s lawyers, José Refugio Rodríguez, said that El Chapo wanted to accelerate extradition because he could no longer tolerate conditions in prison. But previously other lawyers acting for the capo issued a string of injunctions in an attempt to prevent him being sent abroad.

On Monday, Jose Manuel Merino of the Mexican attorney general’s office said the government had no knowledge of a request to speed up El Chapo’s extradition.

Last month, Coronel gave her first ever public interview, in which she depicted her husband as a loving family man, and said she feared for his life after he was placed under a harsh prison regime.

In the interview with Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández, Coronel described her husband as a loving family man and claimed to know little of his professional life. “I’m not certain that he traffics drugs,” she said.

But speaking to the Guardian, Guzmán Ortiz said: “We all know what my father did.”

According to Guzmán Ortiz, this is not the first time Coronel has fought with other members of the family: she said that a similar row broke out when Alejandrina Gisselle Guzmán, who is believed to be another of the drug lord’s daughters, attempted to trademark his name for a range of merchandise.

Separately, the Mexican government on Monday appeared to launch its own attempt at damage control. Without naming Guzmán Ortiz, the national security commissioner, Renato Sales, denied her allegations that El Chapo had bought protection from prominent officials and politicians.

“Not treaties, nor alliances, nor pacts with [organised] crime,” he said. “We will not give in to speculation whose only objective is to divert attention, make this subject a victim to loosen his security.”

Meanwhile, prosecutors said that they would seek to interview Guzmán Ortiz over her allegations.

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