Amid the spotlight currently shining on Julio César Chávez Jr., who faces accusations from the Attorney General’s Office and the United States for alleged ties to organized crime, shocking statements by his father, Julio César Chávez, have resurfaced regarding his closeness to key figures in drug trafficking during his heyday.
The confessions were made in an interview the former boxer gave to Yordi Rosado a few years ago.
Among the most striking details, he revealed that one of the bosses of the Tijuana cartel gave him an object valued at thousands of dollars.
“You’ve said it, that you had a lot of ties to the cartels,” Yordi Rosado comments during the interview. Julio César Chávez doesn’t deny it:
“I know all the drug traffickers. Chapo Guzmán, Amado Carrillo, Azul, Mayo Zambada, Güero Palma, the Arellanos… I know them all because when I was crowned world champion, I would have been one of them. They had children, they summoned me, and if I didn’t go, they would take me.”
At the time, the boxer asserted that despite his social ties to the drug lords, he was never actively involved in drug trafficking. According to his version, even US authorities knew:
“They know I’m not involved in that. So, the US knows it too, because I told them at the time.”
The former boxer recounted that, after one of his most memorable victories, he was invited to a party attended by the leaders of the country’s most powerful cartels:
“The day I beat Macho Camacho, there were about a thousand years of prison sentences at the party. Arellano Félix, Güero Palma, Amado Carrillo, Chapo Guzmán, Azul, Mayo Zambada were there… and they all wanted to meet me.”
