a life full of money, crime and scalpel within reach of the wives of Mexican drug lords

Due to his style and his growing influence in the drug trade, the “buchonas”, as the women of drug lords are called in Mexico, they are on everyone’s lips again after the arrest of Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel.

Nicknamed by some as “the Kardashian of Sinaloa”, Coronel monopolized the New York flashes two years ago during the trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for his stunning style and religious presence at all hearings with the desire to be close to her husband.

Arrested last Monday in Virginia, this former beauty queen now faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and maximum life imprisonment since the United States accuses him of “conspiracy” to deal in drugs and “encourage” the activities of the Sinaloa cartel led by El Chapo.

Colonel, 31 years old and of Mexican and American nationality, embodies the stereotype of the so-called “buchonas”, as the wives of drug dealers who love luxury and surgery are popularly known in Mexico.

The term derives from a luxury whiskey brand that is said to be a favorite among drug dealers.

But it’s also a symptom the growing presence of women in organized crime.

Soap operas typically portray them with jewelry, expensive bags, fancy cars, overdone make-up, striking fingernails, and tight-fitting clothing to showcase the attributes of these “buchonas”. many times objectified and presented as a trophy by the narco in service.

All this narcocultural propaganda is projecting a dream life and enjoying the money at exclusive parties, discos and bars.

Money and power

“It’s a juicy environment in which they engage in organized crimeor, to have money to show that they have it, ”explained Javier Oliva, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Efe on Saturday.

By all discretion, lovers of drug lords are increasingly present on social networks, where they boast of luxury, cosmetic operations and even weapons.

Emma Coronel herself hasn’t exactly gone for the background, as in recent years gave television interviews, still denying her husband’s drug trafficking, and even created a clothing line based on the figure of El Chapo.

“He was showing money which was the product of death and crime,” said the expert.

For Oliva, this “reckless attitude” it is the one who pushed her to her arrest, although this is not surprising since “the biography of Emma Coronel shows that she grew up in an environment of criminality”, since her father was also arrested for drug traffic.

But beyond the luxury life of Coronel, the investigation in the United States points it out with an active role in drug trafficking from the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s largest, something more and more common among drug lord enthusiasts.

He even attempted to bribe the Mexican prison system to secure Chapo’s third escape from prison in 2016.

According to a study by the Washington-based organization InSight Crime, women have traditionally played a role of “subordination” within organized crime, with “vulnerable” tasks such as collecting drugs or transporting narcotics (mules).

In this sense, the Mexican Senate last year approved an amnesty law to empty the prisons of women living in poverty who have been convicted of small-scale drug trafficking.

Role change

However, the same study points out that some women took advantage of their relationship with bosses to take on leadership in organizations. These are “buchonas” who made their way to stop being objective women and become “the bosses”.

“Without a doubt, the capture of Emma Coronel shows how involved women have been, who previously had no participation. Today women, wives, lovers and girls have become actors,” Oliva said.

The colonel is not the first example. Enedina Arellano Félix, alias “Narcomami”, He took command of the Tijuana cartel in 2002 after the murder or capture of all of his brothers.

Also after the capture in 2014 of Héctor Beltrán Leyva, leader of the Beltrán Leyva cartel in MexicoHis wife Clara Elena Laborín was in charge of the coordination of the company.

At the time considered one of the most beautiful women in Sinaloa, she was captured in 2016 and put behind bars, leaving behind the time when she paraded the catwalks.

Eduard Ribas i Admetlla. EFE Agency

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