When the wife of drug lord El Chapo takes to the catwalk in a wedding dress, she’s sending a message | Roberto Saviano

In the midst of an important Italian fashion event, Emma Coronel Aispuro , who is a former beauty queen but no ordinary model, appeared on the Milan catwalk wearing a sumptuous wedding dress. The wife of Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera – better known by the nickname El Chapo, or "the shorty", due to his short stature – made her appearance at Palazzo Serbelloni during Milan fashion week (which, incidentally, has officially distanced itself from her). Much has been written about the fact of her appearance. The remaining issue is why it happened and whether those who were complicit knew what they were complicit in.

Guzmán is considered the premier Mexican drug lord. Before his capture, he was head of the Sinaloa cartel . He has escaped from prison twice : in 2001 and then in 2015. Arrested again in 2016, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, which he is serving in Florence prison, Colorado.

I have extensively written about his criminal affairs, so much so that, on 6 October 2015, the Mexican television channel El Universal broadcast a video shot in La Piedrosa, in the hideout from which Guzmán had managed to escape shortly before the blitz by the police. In those images, you could clearly see, together with some personal effects including shirts and other clothing, the American edition of my book ZeroZeroZero : a book in which Guzmán was the absolute and undisputed protagonist. I followed the cocaine routes, and they led me to study Guzmán's affairs.

The discovery of my book in Guzmán's hideout tells us a lot about how careful the bosses are about how they are described. Appearances matter. Most probably, he had read it to understand exactly how his Sinaloa cartel was seen in civil society.

Emma Coronel is 35 years old and has been married to Guzmán since she was 18. She is originally from Durango, Mexico, and was the niece of Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal, who was also known – until he was killed by the Mexican military – as the "King of Crystal", a reference to his methamphetamine, which, at its best, took on the appearance of crystal. Nacho trafficked methamphetamine throughout the US, together with Guzmán, who spent a period of time on the run in Durango. It was there that he met Emma Coronel, they fell in love and were married on 2 July 2007 in La Angostura. Emma Coronel is 32 years younger than Guzmán, who already had eight children from two previous marriages; she was his third wife, and the couple had twin daughters.

In 2021, Coronel was sentenced to three years in prison in the US for complicity in her husband's business dealings, and she served 31 months, 85% of the sentence, according to the federal law. It was a light sentence considering the illicit activities of the Sinaloa cartel and the murders that the boss had ordered. At least formally, Guzmán was able to keep her away from criminal activities.

It's some journey from there to the catwalk, but April Black Diamond, the fashion designer who chose Coronel for Milan fashion week , responded to those who criticised that choice by saying: "I believe that everyone deserves a second chance, and that fashion is the perfect platform to highlight transformation, strength and resilience."

But I question that. Has there really been a transformation? Has Coronel publicly distanced herself from the Sinaloa cartel? Hardly. Also, she did not cooperate with the justice authorities, denounce Guzmán's sons or ever tell of what she knew. So why the second chance? She was, as a devoted wife, close to Guzmán while he flooded the US with drugs, while he ordered the killing, in 2017 in Culiacán, of the journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas for his reporting on the Sinaloa cartel. And she was next to her husband when, as a fugitive, he was arrested in a residence in Mazatlán in 2014.

Coronel has stood by Guzmán in good times and bad: when in hiding and during the years of detention. It was Chapo Guzmán's wife, the wife of a drug trafficker, who walked down the catwalk. The choice of the wedding dress was deliberate: a reminder of the boda real, the "royal wedding" celebrated in 2007 between her and Guzmán. She was saying that, despite her husband being in prison, despite the criminal consortium being shaken by an internal feud between Guzmán's men and those loyal to El Mayo Zambada , the other Sinaloa cartel founder, their criminal organisation was still strong.

This is why, for them, sending this message was important. After all, it is not the first time that Guzmán and Coronel have used their clothing to send messages to the world, to the press, to the authorities and, above all, to the enemies of the cartel: to those who try to weaken it, to those who see it in decline.

Rewind to 2019, to Brooklyn courthouse in New York. I was there to follow the trial of Guzmán, who had been extradited to the US after his arrest in Mexico. During the trial, the texts that El Chapo had exchanged with his lover Agustina Cabanillas Acosta , known as "La Fiera", were read in the courtroom. The boss, in those messages, described her as the most important woman in his life. He had financially supported her to open a beauty clinic in Mexico. This is not an irrelevant detail: drug trafficking bosses often invest in cosmetic surgery enterprises, because allowing women to redo their breasts, buttocks and cheekbones at reasonable prices but with good results generates consensus and gratitude.

Coronel was there in court when the embarrassing messages were read aloud, but as we watched her, she didn't bat an eyelid. She wouldn't answer questions as she left. We were all convinced that, after that public humiliation, she would never return to her husband's trial.

But at the next hearing, she arrived dressed entirely in burgundy – the colour of blood, of burning passion. Burgundy suit, shirt, lipstick, nail polish and eyeshadow, all designed to match. She had never appeared in court dressed so flashily. Then Guzmán arrived, and we understood: he too was dressed in burgundy. The message was clear, addressed to us, addressed to the whole world: nothing and no one can divide us. This happened in 2019 in New York and this, most likely, is what 2024 in Milan was all about.

But if they are united, to what end? We can read various things into Coronel's public appearance at Milan fashion week. It could be a united show of defiance against the authorities, but could it also be a coded announcement of her willingness to start collaborating with justice ? What if the wedding dress also sanctioned Guzmán's involvement in this new path? It's not a far-off hypothesis. El Chapo Guzmán, undisputed lord of drug trafficking, could be ready to collaborate with US justice, finally determined to reveal all the existing relationships between Mexican business and politics.

We don't know if that's the case, but the couple are saying something. Thinking that Guzmán's wife showed herself in public without a purpose is shallow thinking. It is not in the DNA of criminal organisations, where every move is calculated, where everything has a meaning. Where every gesture is a message that only needs to be interpreted. This is what happened at Milan fashion week.