El Chapo had taken her from a beauty pageant about 14 years before, when she was just 17, choosing her as his wife
The arrest of Emma Coronel Aispuro on February 22, 2021 it was foreshadowed seven years ago, on the very day, when Mexican soldiers arrested her husband in the Mazatlán apartment where they lived with their twin daughters. Within days of her own arrest, the media would circulate rumors that the 31-year-old was cooperating with federal agents. As she sat in her cell, she worried about her family back home and what the future might hold. Because he knew this day would come.
Emma, ​​just 18 at the time, moved to Culiacan after marrying one of the most notorious drug lords. El Chapo he had taken her from a beauty pageant about 14 years before, when she was only 17, choosing her as his wife. As the leader of one of the most “prolific” drug cartels in the world, he could do that too.
A few weeks before the annual festival known as ‘La Feria del Café y la Guayaba’, named after the region’s favorite coffee and guava, Emma, ​​a 17-year-old girl at the time, was competing against four other of girls to be crowned the “queen” of that year’s festival, in a town of about 800 inhabitants.
Her family was not ordinary. Her father, Inés Coronel Barreras, worked for the Sinaloa cartel, along with some other family members. Although the truth was that while her family was particularly “involved”, in the area where she grew up, the association with the cartel made them more common than unusual.
Around 20 small planes and helicopters ferried guests to the festival in honor of Emma’s nomination. A plane carried the man whose notoriety had made him one of the world’s most wanted men and would years later prompt the US State Department to offer a reward of up to $5 million for his capture: JoaquÃn Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo.
Emma was dating a local boy – her first boyfriend. But she was “very serious, very focused, not much of a dating guy,” her cousin, Alfonso López, who lived near Emma’s family for much of their childhood, recalled in a WhatsApp interview on November 2021 from his prison cell in the neighboring state of Sinaloa, where he was serving a sentence for illegally importing military weapons.
Emma knew Chapo like any teenager might know a celebrity. She had first piqued his interest when they were introduced at a local dance in 2006, and she knew of his wealth, his flamboyant, opulent lifestyle, his reputation among drug lords. Chapo was also a “hero” in his homeland, running a cartel that many believed supported its people and public safety better than the government itself. This was especially true in a town like Canelas, where girls and their families were often anxious to marry for financial security and security.
Chapo, who allegedly raped girls as young as 13 and called the young girls his “vitamins” because they gave him “life”, lusted after Emma. Before Chapo left the festival he gave her father a Chevy Cheyenne 4×4 and a Mercedes-Benz with a huge bow for Emma. In the mountains, where it is still customary for families to “pay” for their daughter’s hand in marriage, a sort of reverse dowry, Emma was now – quite suddenly – the drug lord’s prospective wife!
Two days later, 150 members of the 72nd Infantry Battalion descended on the area, searching for Chapo, having received information that he was nearby. When the battalion left, Chapo returned to Emma’s side again. Emma won the pageant and was crowned queen wearing a silky yellow dress.
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On July 2, her 18th birthday, she married Chapo in what she described as a simple ceremony at her parents’ home, surrounded by family and close friends. For the next three days, bands and parties filled the streets of Canelas, which were surrounded by la guardia, uniformed cartel members carrying automatic weapons.
After the wedding, Chapo and Emma moved to Culiacán, the cartel’s headquarters, with a population of around 630,000 at the time. Emma was often alone while Chapo helped run the cartel—and, it was widely known, was often with other women. Another wife of Chapo, Griselda López Pérez, still lived in Culiacán.
In those early years of her marriage, Emma began to change. Not in her demeanor, which is repeatedly described by family and residents of northwestern Mexico as simple and likeable. But as her husband collected mistresses, the young maiden was now transformed into a woman, to make herself desirable to her husband. Then, when she turned 21, Emma’s body changed in a completely different way: She got pregnant.
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As Chapo’s wife, Emma always felt safe. But her marriage to him provided protection only as long as he was still alive. With Chapo still in power, she felt she and their children would be safe from the violence of the drug world. Emma was born near San Francisco, a dual American and Mexican citizen, with all the benefits and privileges that come with American citizenship. And so, according to a 2011 Los Angeles Times article, nearing her due date and without her husband, she herself crossed the border into Southern California in July of that year, with US federal agents reportedly watching her every move. her movement. About a month later, she gave birth to her twin daughters at Antelope Valley Hospital in Los Angeles County. Following her husband’s strict instructions, on their birth certificates, Emma left the space for their father’s name blank, giving them her own surname.
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Serving her sentence in a federal prison in Texas, Emma was transferred to Los Angeles County over the summer and then released. Today she is 34 years old and the whole course of her life seemed predetermined. She pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking and money-laundering conspiracy charges related to her husband’s Sinaloa cartel.
Returning to her family in Mexico is almost impossible. In a life of few choices, it turns out he may have made one that would ultimately matter the most: seemingly turning a prison sentence into… an escape route. “I hope for many good and beautiful things in my life,” she says.
Source :Skai
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
