Despite reports, Joaquin Guzman, the world's most wanted man, was not killed

In this June 10, 1993 file photo, Joaquin Guzman Loera, alias "El Chapo" Guzman, is shown to the media after his arrest at the high security prison of Almoloya de Juarez. / AP Photo

SAN VALENTIN, Guatemala A Guatemalan official said Friday there was no evidence that Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, had been killed in a shootout in the rural north, calling such reports a misunderstanding.

Officials have been eager to capture the infamous "El Chapo," a.k.a. "Shorty," who replaced Osama bin Laden atop the world's most wanted fugitives list in 2011, and who has been on the lam since escaping a maximum security prison in Mexico in a laundry cart in 2001.

Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla told local media that the original account was based on testimony from residents in San Valentin near the Mexican border, but that soldiers and police scanning the area found no sign of any confrontation.

"I apologize if there was a misunderstanding," Lopez told the Guatemalan radio station Emisores Unidos. "It was a mix-up. We were referring to information generated from the area that there was possibly a crime scene with a dead person resembling El Chapo."

Authorities mounted the search Friday in the tropical state of Peten, an isolated area known for the transport of livestock.

"As of now, we have no verification," Lopez said.

An Associated Press photographer in the area also found no signs of shootout or victims, just a checkpoint of 12 soldiers stopping vehicles in an area considered to be held by Mexico's Zetas cartel, Guzman's biggest rivals.

Guzman heads the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful international drug-trafficking network, and has been in hiding since escaping from a Mexican prison in a laundry cart in 2001. He is one of the world's most wanted fugitives, as well as one of the richest. Forbes magazine has estimated his fortune at $1 billion.

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Lopez said on Thursday that authorities were investigating whether Guzman was one of at least two men killed in the remote area. But the government later backtracked and said it had only received reports of a battle from local people.

Government spokesman Francisco Cuevas first told Guatevision Television that two drug gangs had clashed in Peten, an area that has seen an increase in drug violence and that at least two men had died in the shootout.

Later, Cuevas told Mexico's Televisa network that authorities hadn't yet found a body or the scene where reports said a shootout took place.

He never said what led officials to think that one of the dead men might be Guzman.

Guzman has evaded authorities for several years now. His international reach and varied streams of income have made him a drug kingpin nonpareil in history, even outdoing in terms of wealth and longevity the infamous Pablo Escobar.

Last week, authorities in Chicago listed him as Public Enemy No. 1, the first such designation since Al Capone, despite the fact that Guzman is almost certainly not anywhere in the U.S.

"Not since the Chicago Crime Commission's first Public Enemy No. 1 has any criminal deserved this title more than Joaquin Guzman," Chicago Crime Commission president J.R. Davis said Thursday. "If I was to put those two guys in a ring, El Chapo would eat that guy (Capone) alive."

[maz_beachbum]

Living in the state of Sinaloa in Mexico as I do, I often frequent some of the finer restaurants in Culiacan. There have been 2 occasions where a group of people come in and the security for the group goes to each customer and rounds up all the cells, and any other means of communication. No one is allowed to leave until the "group" has eaten and left the restaurant. The first time this happened, I swore to myself that one of the men was Guzman. By the way, the group also covered the tab for everyone in the restaurant.

[keeferbear]

I think hes hiding out in his own country of mexico being protected by his own people like that guy that was on the F.B.I.'s most wanted list and the military had to go in there and find him and kill him, thats what i think!

[aintfakin]

here is a challenge for all those"good guys with guns"

[littleredtop]

Its difficult to believe that the wealthiest, and one of the most successful criminals in the history of this world, could still be personally involved in a shootout as described in this article. One would think that by now he has diversified his portfolio to include legitimate businesses and investments while, most certainly, altering his appearance and changing his identity. He may even have a double or two resembling his appearance prior to surgery. This guy hasn't eluded the authorities this long by being stupid. I suspect that he's living very comfortably in Italy, perhaps in a well appointed villa surrounded by vineyards or in a picturesque ancient villa on Lake Como. He may be even be just over the Italian border in Switzerland living a peaceful and opulent lifestyle in the charming village of Ascona or neighboring Lugano. Wherever he may be, he is no doubt surrounded by investment counselors and business advisers who manipulate and grow his fortune through legitimate means. Why would a man with this wealth and power elect to remain in, of all places, Mexico?

[Robert_M1]

El Chapo more than likely is living large, and hiding in plain site. He's probably in Rome, doing what the Romans do. Enjoying, and spending his mooncho denero.

[carolhill814]

Everything is a misunderstanding in mexico no matter what it might be.

[oldoc44]

That's a fact. Note they're all proud Catholics too. Vatican calls that dysfunctional piece of real estate a "Catholic nation". LOL Where are all those social and ethical guidelines that should be part of such an ostensibly religious place??

[esaun211]

Very baffling how a man that is involved in a business that sells a substance that the next man can make a choice whether to use or not could be labeled public enemy no. 1. why is he such a threat while tobacco and alcohol czars can operate the same type of businesses without no scrutiny. Corrupt judicial systems along with their foot soldiers should be America's enemy no.1. America is always labeling others as the enemy while the true enemies are not 1000s of miles away but reside right here in the borders of the good ole USA

[crankyoleman]

To post something this stupid indicates you have tried them all...frequently.

[esaun211]

Sorry but dont do no drugs rather but em on da beam and flip da green so climb back in your trailer meth-head before the sudafed bubbles over and destroys the forest

[123-cbsnews]

Twenty years later the money won't keep him alive or healthy he needs to workout like a teenager, idiot, so much wasted time learning how to become a drug addict and a drunk each day. Maybe, his edge is just that, a few of the great ones don't actually use what they sell, all though many just don't ever admit to it, in the end they are the worst people on earth providing destructive "wonder" drugs from the 1920's, 1950's, and 1960's (cocaine, heroin, meth) to the dumb and dumber. Our own medical industry and government promoted these drugs until the destructive side effects became damningly obvious.

[logic_ghost]

Hey 123, here's some food for thought. You said, "Our own medical industry and government promoted these drugs until the destructive side effects became damningly obvious." Well, how frightening, even more frightening is the fact that the world's biggest drug dealers (Big Pharm) can make it well known what harm their drugs can do (ever read the pages of warnings on side-effects that can result from taking the drugs your doctor prescribes you?) and we all swallow them down like good children without question. This is our world, a terrifying place indeed.