CULIACAN, Mexico, (AFP) — The mother of notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Maria Consuelo Loera, has died at age 95, according to family members and local media.

Loera died Sunday at a private hospital in Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa — where her son’s powerful drug trafficking cartel is headquartered — due to complications weeks after gallbladder surgery, family and media said.

Controversy famously swirled around Loera after she met with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in March 2020 while he was touring the state. He approached her car to greet her, which sparked sharp criticism of the leader.

Obrador at the time defended his gesture, saying the elderly woman “deserves all my respect regardless of who her son is.”

“If I shake hands with white-collar criminals, how can I not shake hands with a lady?” he said.

During their encounter, Loera delivered a letter to Obrador asking him for help to acquire a humanitarian visa to visit her son in prison in the United States, where he has been serving a life sentence for drug trafficking since 2019.

She was never able to make the trip.

Asked for his reaction to her death during his morning press conference Monday, Obrador offered his condolences.

“I respect the family… Any human being who loses her life deserves respect and also consideration for the relatives, to everyone,” he said. “No human is alien to me.”