After the brazen escape, there are the “official” tweets.
Following notorious drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s escape from a maximum security Mexican prison over the weekend, attention has been drawn to the alleged “official” Twitter account under the name @ElChap0Guzman — which has over 300,000 followers.
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Since El Chapo’s escape, the account has had several tweets (in Spanish), including “Wits are better than strength and that has worked for me” as well as “Life takes many turns, one day you’re in the hole and the next day you’re on top.”
Y tú @EPN no me vuelvas a llamar delincuente porqué yo doy trabajo a la gente no como tu pinche gobierno corriente.
— Joaquín Guzmán Loera (@ElChap0Guzman) July 13, 2015La vida da muchas vueltas, un día estamos en el hoyo y otro día estamos arriba.
— Joaquín Guzmán Loera (@ElChap0Guzman) July 12, 2015In the tweet addressed to President Enrique Peña Nieto, El Chapo tells him not to call him a “delinquent” since he gives people more jobs than the “pinche” (puny) Mexican government.
Regardless of the provenance of El Chapo’s “official” twitter account, it is not surprising to see drug cartels on social media, as Council of Foreign Relations’ senior fellow Shannon O’Neil told NBC News.
“You have seen an increase in this kind of thing as Mexico has become more wired,” said O’Neil, an expert on Latin America. “In general, the members of the drug cartels are younger. It’s a demographic that is very comfortable being online.”
Elsewhere on the internet, a blog dedicated to reporting on trafficking in Mexico, called ElBlogDelNarco.com claims to have acquired photos of El Chapo from one of his sons.NBC News has not verified the authenticity of the photos, and a former Drug Enforcement Administration official said there’s no way to guarantee that the pictures are of the drug cartel. The ex-DEA agent told NBC News that he found it hard to believe that one of El Chapo’s sons would release images that might tip authorities off to his whereabouts.
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com.
Hasani Gittens