The clothing brand of Alejandrina Guzman, the daughter of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Gozman Loera, distributed around 300 gifts to children with his image imprinted on them.
Company employees on Saturday handed out balls carrying the image, along with the logo of the brand, called "Chapo 701", and a bag of sweets, reports Efe news. The gifts were distributed in one of the most impoverished areas of Guadalajara, the capital of the western Jalisco province, which also has a high crime rate.
The company's CEO Julio Campos told Efe news that they would also carry out the campaign in other underprivileged districts of the city to celebrate the occasion with the children, despite the stay-at-home measures enforced to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Guzman's foundation
"We did not want to let this day pass. The foundation of Alejandrina Guzman is of the view that children are the future of our society and we are following that. We know that it is complicated to hold events right now, gathering people, but we are doing it in the most orderly way possible," he said.
He said the brand wants to get rid of the social stigma attached to the name of the drug lord. Campos said that the brand would soon release miniature figures of El Chapo - made with non-toxic material - for sale to reach the young population. The toys will be priced between 1,300-1,500 pesos ($50-$60). Earlier this month, the company had distributed aid boxes on behalf of Alejandrina Guzman to elderly residents in Guadalajara who have been forced to remain indoors to avoid contracting the new coronavirus.
In a similar effort, videos uploaded on social media have shown alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel distributing aid packets to people unable to leave their houses in the neighborhoods of Zapopan, Tonala and the southern coast of Jalisco, on behalf of their chief Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho".
After getting to know about the videos, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said such actions "do not help" the people and urged organized crime groups to stop such activities. El Chapo, the leader of the murderous (and still active) Sinaloa cartel, is serving a life sentence after his conviction last July on charges of drug trafficking, firearms and money laundering.
He had twice escaped from prisons in Mexico before being extradited to the US.
