MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The home town of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is considering housing a drug trafficking museum, the mayor was quoted as saying on Thursday, in the hope of attracting tourists to the area.
The museum, in the town of Badiraguato in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, could tell the stories of various drug capos who were born in the region, the heartland of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported.
Badiraguato’s mayor, Jose Lopez, is reported to have earmarked close to $1 million for the project, according to Reforma.
The subject of the new museum was yet to be finalised, Lopez said in an interview published by the Milenio news channel this week, but noted that drug trafficking was an irrevocable part of the state’s story.
“We can’t deny our history… it’s possible we’ll have a museum dedicated to drug trafficking,” Lopez said told Milenio, adding the local government’s priority was to encourage economic development in the region.
“We are going to listen to museum specialists to guide us,” he added. “We’re not closed to any subject.”
Avigail Lopez, assistant to the municipal presidency, told Reuters that a museum is under construction, though its content and subject matter has not yet been finalised.
Guzman, 65, was convicted in New York in 2019 of trafficking billions of dollars of drugs to the United States and conspiring to murder enemies, stemming from his role as a leader the Sinaloa Cartel.
He has been serving a life sentence at Colorado’s Supermax, the most secure U.S. federal prison.
(Reporting by Isabel Woodford and Raul Cortes; Editing by Alistair Bell)
