Mexican authorities lambaste Forbes for listing drug trafficker among the super-rich

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

News Thursday that Forbes magazine included one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug traffickers Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman on its rich list has prompted outrage from Mexican officials.

‘I will never accept that a criminal could or would be recognized, even by a magazine like Forbes,’ said Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora, quoted in The News.

‘In my country, [Guzman] is associated with a wave of violence in recent years ... and the death of many innocent people who have got caught in the crossfire of hit men.’

Medina Mora said Forbes’ inclusion of Guzman was ‘baseless’ and lacking in ‘methodological rigor.’

The News reports that other lawmakers in Congress echoed those sentiments Thursday.

Guzman was captured in Guatemala in 1993 and transferred to a maximum-security prison in Mexico, but he got tired of the life. Eight years after his incarceration, he paid guards to smuggle him out of the prison in a laundry truck. Read Tracy Wilkinson’s report on sightings of Guzman in Mexico here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City.