The women who shaped the private life of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán are speaking out once again.
Following the recent release of the documentary Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks, Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López, a former Mexican congresswoman and alleged former romantic partner of Guzmán, has publicly challenged the narrative presented by Emma Coronel, the drug lord's wife.
In a recent interview with journalist Luis Chaparro, Sánchez rejected the suggestion that Coronel was unaware of Guzmán's relationships with other women during their marriage.
"She knew I existed," Sánchez said. "You can't live in that world and be blind."
A Competing Version of the Story
In the documentary, Coronel presents a more personal account of her life with Guzmán, discussing motherhood, her years living in remote mountain regions, and the emotional toll of being married to one of the world's most wanted men. She acknowledges hearing rumors of infidelity but claims she never saw concrete proof.
Sánchez argues that the documentary tells only part of the story and omits what she describes as the darker realities faced by women involved with Guzmán. According to her, the long-standing portrayal of a love triangle obscures a much more troubling dynamic.
Sánchez testified against Guzmán during his 2019 federal trial in New York, often referred to as the "Trial of the Century." She says seeing her name resurface in connection with the documentary compelled her to speak publicly again.
Allegations of Abuse and Coercion
One of Sánchez's most serious claims involves the beginning of her relationship with Guzmán. She alleges that their first encounter was not consensual.
According to her account, what began as a job offer when she was 20 years old turned into a period of forced confinement in the mountains. Sánchez said she believed she was accepting work as a stylist but instead found herself isolated and unable to leave for weeks.
"I never imagined I would end up being held against my will," Sánchez said, alleging physical abuse by Guzmán, a side of the cartel leader that she claims is rarely discussed publicly.
These allegations have not been independently verified and Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in the United States, has not responded publicly to Sánchez's statements.
Did Emma Coronel Know?
Sánchez's comments place renewed scrutiny on Coronel's portrayal in the documentary. While Coronel describes herself as emotionally affected by rumors of infidelity, Sánchez insists that the presence of multiple women was widely known within Guzmán's inner circle.
"She knew perfectly well about me and about others," Sánchez said. "It was an open secret."
Her statements complicate the image of Coronel presented in the film, suggesting that Guzmán's relationships were part of a more complex and tense reality than the documentary acknowledges.
From Politics to Prison
Sánchez's own trajectory remains one of the most striking in the history of the Sinaloa Cartel. She became the youngest lawmaker in the history of Sinaloa before being accused by U.S. authorities of acting as a romantic partner and financial intermediary for Guzmán.
Her 2014 visit to the high-security Altiplano prison using false identification brought her into the international spotlight. She was later arrested, extradited to the United States, and sentenced after cooperating with prosecutors.
Now living under supervised release after completing her sentence, Sánchez says she is trying to reclaim her identity beyond the labels that have followed her for more than a decade.
Her response to Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks, she insists, is not solely a rebuttal to Coronel's account, but an effort to tell what she describes as her own truth and to denounce the abuse she says she endured at the hands of Guzmán.
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