It was June 2010. It had been two years since the Sinaloa Cartel had suffered its worst split, the most violent and shocking for the state’s population due to the magnitude of the violence and the division of its structures. In 2008, the Army had arrested Alfredo Beltran Leyva, alias El Mochomoand his brothers had accused Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera of treason. The structure fragmented and each boss took sides: “The May” Zambada supported Guzmán. More than 20 months had passed with an increase in murders with extreme violence, forced displacement of thousands of inhabitants of the mountains and indiscriminate use of bazookas and gatling guns. It seemed that for the first time in a long time, the people of Sinaloa were willing to make anyone linked to crime pay a political price.

Jesus Vizcarra Calderon He was a candidate for governor for the PRI, and his rival was Mario López Valdez, alias Malova, a former PRI member supported by the PAN structure, by President Felipe Calderón and by the former PRI governors Juan Millán Lizárraga and Francisco Labastida.

Vizcarra Calderón was (and still is) a powerful meat businessman, owner of the SuKarne brand, a market leader. He is also the president of Salud Digna, an organization that formally identifies itself as non-profit, and which has a presence in practically the entire country. The governor at the time was Jesús Aguilar Padilla, a politician allied to Millán Lizárraga, but who insisted on promoting Vizcarra even though neither Millán nor Labastida agreed. This led to an internal rift in the PRI.

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Rubén Rocha Moya, now governor of Sinaloa for Morena, was at that time chief of advisors to the PRI member Aguilar Padilla.

Thus, confronted within the party, and confronted within the Sinaloa Cartel, they arrived at the debate for the state governorship.

“I would ask him, Jesús… I would ask him today, in front of thousands of people from Sinaloa, if he is or is not a friend of “El Mayo” Zambada,” Mario López Valdez said in June 2010. Vizcarra did not know what to answer and remained silent.

Vizcarra has been linked to “El Mayo” Zambada for many years, but it is true that he has never been proven guilty of criminal activity. It is also true that he has never clarified the accusations against him.

In that government of Jesus Aguilar PadillaVizcarra and Rocha coincided: Rocha as chief advisor, Vizcarra as Secretary of Economic Development, period 2005-2007.

But their friendship goes back further. In his recent Monday conference, the “semanera,” the governor said that they had a good relationship since he was rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloaand the businessman was president of the board of trustees of the Civil Hospital of Culiacán, in 1995, an institution that is part of the UAS.

When Rocha was asked about his flight to Los Angeles, United States, coincidentally the same day he was ambushed Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada by people of Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of El Chapo Guzmanconfirmed that the plane belonged to Jesús Vizcarra, his friend, but that he had not asked for it, but rather his son Rubén Rocha Ruiz, because he said that he could not ask for a favor like that as governor.

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He also said that his son Rocha Ruiz wanted to pay for the private flight, that he has money for it, but that Vizcarra did not accept.

“I left because it was the first week of vacation,” he explained. “It didn’t cost me anything and he didn’t give it to me for free either. He and my son Rubén understood each other… Jesús (Vizcarra) is my friend, but nobody can do me a favor of that magnitude because I am the governor: he and Rubén, my son, understand each other.”

He added that he went on that private plane to see his relatives, brothers and nephews who are migrant workers, like so many other poor Mexicans.

The flight log shows that Rubén Rocha Moya left for Los Angeles on July 25 at 9 a.m., the same day of the ambush against El Mayo Zambada in Culiacán. The plane used is Servicios Ejecutivos Aéreos Viz, owned by businessman Jesús Vizcarra Calderón. Photo credit: Especial.

In 2007, as a reporter, I had to go to the first day of Jesús Vizcarra’s campaign as a candidate for mayor of Culiacán. His first act was at the municipal market, the Garmendia, a place where he went to sell meat from family slaughterhouses as a child. He drank an Eskimo, a cold milkshake with chocolate. The locals knew exactly where he was.

As mayor, he brought his close business team and set up a special office to raise federal funds. His ambition was to pave the way in three years for what had not been done in 20.

During that campaign, and during a skills test to measure himself against his electoral opponents, Vizcarra was asked about history, culture and mathematics. In the first two disciplines he scored poorly, but in the numbers he was the most outstanding.

During the gubernatorial campaign, people from his close team mentioned to this reporter that Vizcarra had a rather unfriendly, rather harsh, disposition, and was constantly scolding. This, in the end, brought him a severe internal crisis that contributed to his defeat as a candidate for governor against Malova.

However, another key element was the debate for governor of Sinaloa, where he could never deny that he was a friend of “El Mayo” Zambada.

Since then, Vizcarra has distanced himself from electoral politics.

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