Congratulations to those Mexican Marines who recaptured Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán after a bitter gunfight in his home state of Sinaloa. Unlike his 2001 escape when he was at large for 13 years, this time he was recaptured in less than six months.

For most Americans, this seems like a fairly simple case of excellent police work with the major side story being Sean Penn. What I’ve heard from many calls to friends in Juárez and Palomas is very different.

Angela, a businesswoman in Juárez asks why Chapo was captured just two days after a very critical editorial (“Mexico Stubbornly Resists Accountability”) in The New York Times about President Enrique Peña Nieto. To bump up the president’s sagging popularity? Why were others killed in the shootout but not Chapo when the Mexican Marines have a reputation of not taking prisoners? Why was his head covered when he was put in the helicopter to go back to Mexico City? An employee of hers suggests that the man being loaded in the helicopter was a double. José Antonio says that this is a “cortina de humo,” or smoke screen or a game, between Chapo and Peña Nieto and that he will never be extradited because he has too many secrets.

Vicente, a doctor who works in one of the prisons agrees that this is a deal between Chapo and Peña Nieto to get the latter’s favorability ratings up and that part of the deal is that Chapo won’t be extradited. The photographer Julián says that, if there is an extradition, it will be a lengthy process during which all sorts of strange things can happen. Ivonne, a businesswoman in Palomas, sees this as a distraction from the much larger economic problems of sinking oil prices and the increasingly strong dollar.

This overwhelming sense that the government in Mexico is only for the rich and powerful is one reason why Chapo was able to escape twice from the most secure prisons in the country and why he is so highly regarded by so many.

Obviously, money is a factor. It would be fascinating to know how much the two escapes cost Chapo. Fear is a factor. Wouldn’t you help him escape if his people knew where your wife worked or your children went to school? More to the point, how would you feel if you were one of the soldiers standing next to him at the time of his capture with your face uncovered?

However, respect and contempt are even stronger factors. Respect for Chapo’s contributions to the poor, especially in his home state of Sinaloa and contempt for the failure of the Mexican government to do the same. This creates an environment in which the severity of his crimes are diminished, in which someone like Aurora in Juárez can say that he is just a “businessman” and that drugs are really an American problem.

Given his brutal history, this is a tough argument to accept until you have a chance to witness firsthand this daily callous disregard of the needy. In my case it happened once again the day before Chapo’s capture. My brother-in-law and I crossed the border at Santa Teresa on the west edge of Juárez, my car bulging with used clothing for a hospital down the road as well as for several desperately poor families. Then I got the red light in the Mexican customs traffic lane, was pulled over, searched and fined. My argument that I was helping the poor — in fact, doing what the Mexican government should be doing — went nowhere.

This was a minor inconvenience compared to the experience of the founder of the hospital that same night. In order to get a van full of donated beans the 25 miles from Sunland Park, New Mexico, to his hospital and avoid an exorbitant bribe at Santa Teresa, he had to drive more than an hour west to the border at Palomas, Mexico, wait several hours until the right Mexican customs official came on duty, give him a $300 bribe, cross into Mexico and drive an hour and a half back to the hospital on a terrifying two lane road — a trip of almost 200 miles plus a payment of $300 because of the cruelty of the Mexican government. No wonder even someone as brutal as Chapo has public support. These aren’t isolated events; this is simply the reality of the border.

As for the future, Chapo is probably finished, whether or not he is extradited. And other narcos will quickly fill his place as has repeatedly happened when kingpins are arrested. There will be little impact on the drug trade.

More important, Mexican leaders and perhaps even President Enrique Peña Nieto might ask themselves why someone whose drug trafficking had caused such extraordinary damage can still be so popular. It doesn’t matter what country you live in. Government ought to be for the people, not against them.

Morgan Smith is a former member of the Colorado House of Representatives and served as Colorado’s commissioner of agriculture. He travels to Mexico at least monthly to document and assist various humanitarian projects. Reach him at Morgan-smith@comcast.net.