JJ Rendon Involved in El Chapo's Bribes, Says Witness

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s one-time “right-hand man" testified Tuesday that the drug kingpin payed off former President Enrique Peña Nieto through an assistant of the political strategist J.J. Rendon, who was worked for several right-wing governments in Latin America.

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Alex Cifuentes, a Colombian national who spent years working with Guzman as his personal aid while hiding from Mexican authorities in Sinaloa, was crossexamined by the defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman about declarations in past years.

In 2016 and 2017, Cifuentes told U.S. authorities that Guzman paid US$100 million to Peña Nieto in October 2012, when he was president-elect. On Tuesday, however, he said he was “confused” about the exact amount.

Cifuentes said that Guzman told him the bribe would allow the business to continue.

Reviewing the declarations, Lichtman said Cifuentes confessed that they used to deliver brives through his former personal assistant, Andrea Velez Fernandez, who worked for Rendon.

According to the witness declarations, Velez sent Cifuentes pictures of suitcases filled with money in Rendon’s personal plane at the time he was advising Peña Nieto’s presidential campaign.

Rendon denied Cifuentes' allegations in an interview with CNN Español on Tuesday, and said he is willing to be investigated for them.

Lichtman had already claimed in November that Peña Nieto “received hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes” from the Sinaloa Cartel.

As has been happening with all the politicians and public figures stained by the trial’s statements, both Rendon and a spokesman for Peña Nieto denied the accusations.

Rendon, who was born in Caracas, has worked for several right-wing campaigns, including those of Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico, Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia, Juan Orlando Hernandez in Honduras, and Rafael Calderas and Henrique Capriles in Venezuela.

Although Rendon isn't currently employed by any Mexican party, he has said there are many ways to act on their behalf without being on any official payroll and revealed in an interview that he would do anything to prevent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador becoming the next president of Mexico in 2018.

Lopez Obrador was sworn in on Dec. 1, 2018.