On October 17, 2019, an operation in Culiacán, Sinaloa, to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, failed, and he was released. On June 19, 2020, President López Obrador said at his morning press conference: “Yo ordené que se detuviera ese operativo y que se dejara en libertad a este presunto delincuente” (I ordered that the operation be stopped and that this alleged criminal be set free).
In October 2022, he repeated that he gave the instruction “to avoid a massacre” and said that his conscience was clear.