[imagesource: PNC de Guatemala]

Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s story has not had a happy ending.

Then again, that’s pretty much par for the course if you’re a drug cartel kingpin.

El Chapo’s wife is also facing the full might of the law and may join her husband behind bars if authorities get their way.

Over in Guatemala, violence linked to drug cartels and power struggles rages on, with the 2011 murder of Mayra Lemus particularly infamous.

Mayra was at the Los Cuernos hotel in Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado when two trucks filled with gunmen arrived, opening fire with AK-47 rifles and shotguns.

Eight people died, Mayra included, although her younger sister Marixa avoided being killed, despite gunmen spraying bullets at her truck as she arrived on the scene.

The attack has come to be known as “the massacre at Los Cuernos”, and Marixa has since been dubbed Guatemala’s female ‘El Chapo’.

She is also sometimes referred to as “La Patrona” – the female boss.

In an in-depth VICE article charting the violent battle for power in the region, Marixa has spoken about how much she hates life behind bars, following her 2014 arrest on kidnapping and murder charges.

Those murder charges include killing her own husband, a charge she denies.

In 2017, she was handed a 94-year prison sentence. She hates life behind bars so much that she’s made a habit of escaping, hence the ‘El Chapo’ nickname:

The first time Marixa escaped was in May 2016, after fellow prisoners reportedly helped her vault over a wall. She was caught within hours, but that didn’t stop her from trying again.

The second time, in May 2017, she broke out of the Mariscal Zavala military prison. Better prepared this time, she snuck out wearing a guard’s uniform and got picked up by a waiting car.

Image: PNC El Salvador

When the authorities finally caught up with her in El Salvador two weeks later, she had dyed her hair a dark red, like that of her sister Mayra. Her capture was a media sensation: Even the president at the time, Jimmy Morales, tweeted about it.

She also has a long-running battle with Roberto Marroquín Fuentes, the Lemus family’s political nemesis, and the current mayor of Moyuta.

Mayra had previously run against Marroquín for that position, prior to her death in 2011.

The Lemus’ believe that Marroquín was behind that shooting, but he has never been arrested or charged for her murder.

Marroquín claims Marixa has tried to kill him on three separate occasions, once placing a bomb on a bridge he was due to cross on his drive home from work.

The bomb failed to detonate, and Marixa has denied any involvement:

Both times that she got out, Marroquín was watching, said a source in Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado. “He shakes in his pants when he sees Marixa. He behaves like the big man when he moves around with his bodyguards, but he is very afraid of her. When she got out for the second time, he didn’t leave his house until she was caught—didn’t do a single public act.”

Image: Carlos Hernandez

“I know [Marroquín] is terrified of me because I’m a woman who took the reins and I’m going to avenge myself and all of the family that he took away from me,” [Marixa] said.

Clearly, that grudge has not been buried.

As it stands, Marixa is still battling against her sentence, saying she is trying to reopen the case against her.

If she ever gets out, Marroquín better be looking over his shoulder.

[source:vice]