REPORTER DEBORAH BONELLO ON THE HIDDEN STORIES OF THE QUEEN PINS OF THE DRUGS TRADE
In vestigativejournalist Deborah Bonello has spent nearly two decades covering organised crime and drug cartels in Latin America . And while male drug lords such as Pablo Escobar and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán have gained notoriety beyond the cartels, her research uncovered a vast number of boss women, who are equally as feared and respected in the trafficking trade.
Dubbed “las Patronas” – or female bosses – the likes of Guadalupe Fernandez Valencia, chief financial officer of El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel, who controlled the Mexican cartel’s billions; criminal matriarch Digna Valle, the female face of Honduras’ Valle Cartel; Guatemalan drugs boss Sebastiana Cottón Vásquez; and “Queen of the South” Marllory Chacon Rossell, one of Latin America’s most prolific drug traffickers, show that the women are just as powerful as the men. We spoke to Deborah to find out more.
What first drew you to the subject of las Patronas?
I came to Mexico in 2005, and organised crime was a big part of the journalism beat once President Felipe Calderón declared war on the cartels in 2006. I mostly covered the disappearances and murders – the collateral damage that organised crime causes. I felt the way that the women were perceived in the trade was very pigeon-holed. They were seen as either wives, girlfriends or mules, there wasn’t any kind of diversity. I’ve never been a stereotypical woman and it didn’t feel real to me that the only women involved would be wives, girlfriends or victims. Another thing that drew me was the unseen amount of women who were fundamental in the running and organisation of cartels. So, I wanted to tell stories about organised crime from the perspective of women and put the spotlight on them.
What surprised you the most?
The sheer number of women involved. We’ve always assumed cartels are deeply misogynistic organisations and the way women are treated, especially in the gangs in Central America, is very medieval. But the drug trafficking trade is first and foremost a business. Unlike terrorist organisations, it’s based on the ideology that profit is key. So, if women can launder money, organise logistics and transportation just as well as – or even better than – men, that’s a business decision. I was really surprised by how many women there were, and the nuance of their stories and differences in their backgrounds. They come from very different socio and economic realities. What I also found really interesting was that a lot of them had the option to do something else. Chacon Rossell studied business at university, so she didn’t have to do what she did. A DEA agent said to me that had she worked for a Fortune 500 company, she’d have been a CEO. She had
