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Mexico: El Chapo’s notes from underground, VIDEO

Penn first met in person with El Chapo’s son under Chavista Cartel de los Soles protection in Venezuela’s Margarita Island.

El Chapo snuck out of the house during the Mexican Marines’ raid through a tunnel, bring us today’s Capt. Louis Renault moment:
‘El Chapo’ Nearly Foiled Capture With Another Tunnel. Mexican Marines took nearly 90 minutes to find the drug lord’s tunnel

Video published Monday by Mexican broadcaster Televisa revealed details of the secret tunnel used by Mr. Guzmán to slip away from marines as they stormed a house he was using in the coastal city of Los Mochis. He was arrested hours later trying to leave the city in a stolen car.

The tunnel was hidden behind a closet mirror, featured a secret switch hidden in the ceiling, and had electricity and wooden planks covering the walls, the images showed. Marines took nearly 90 minutes to find the tunnel and open the access, giving him a big head start.

Mr. Guzmán, the world’s most notorious drug lord and leader of the Sinaloa cartel, has a long history with tunnels. He is widely credited with pioneering the use of tunnels to ferry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, and used tunnels in recent years to elude capture as Mexico’s most-wanted criminal. He then famously used a mile-long tunnel to escape from prison last July.

Were he living, Dosto may have something to say on Chapo’s underground tendencies.

By now, shouldn’t Chapo (Shorty) be named El Topo (Mole)?

But I digress.

Here’s Televisa‘s coverage (in Spanish). Here’s the video from the Marines’ unit commander’s go-pro camera.

Anonymous Mexico released an embeddable version,

While the house was raided,

[El Chapo] fled through a secret door concealed by a mirror. He hid in a tunnel, until rainwater forced him out. An armed Guzman then stole a car, before finally being arrested.

As for Sean Penn’s October movie deal with El Chapo under the guise of an interview,

Penn agreed that El Chapo

would have the final edit of the resulting story.Penn also agreed not to alert authorities to the killer’s whereabouts

And it all comes down to this: Sean Penn Perpetuates Narco-Worship in a Blood-Stained Country

The main reason for the bloodshed in Mexico since the early part of 2000‘s comes from Guzman’s efforts to take control of the entire Northern Mexican border with the United States. While the expansion has been partly successful, the land-grab has resulted in thousands of deaths as rival cartels and former allies have at different times taken arms to protect their turf.

El Chapo’s attempt to take Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, led that massive drug trafficking corridor to become the Murder Capital of the world. The violence came when El Chapo’s forces clashed with the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, also known as the Juarez Cartel.

Even before Juarez, El Chapo and his then allied the Beltran Leyva cartel had unsuccessfully tried to take over the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. That effort was met with a violent response from the Gulf Cartel and their enforcers Los Zetas. Gruesome executions and fierce clashes between convoys of gunmen became a regular sight.

Some maintain that, If Stupidity Were a Crime, Sean Penn Would Be the Fugitive. But see for yourself: you can read the interview (all nine thousand words) here. (Related: The Trouble With Sean Penn’s Chapo Interview)

But back to the underground,

I don’t agree with the stupidity part; Penn reportedly first met in person with El Chapo’s son under Chavista protection in Venezuela’s Ranchos de Chana resort at Margarita Island, according to Spanish journalist Emili Blasco (in Spanish), The meeting allegedly was sponsored by former chief of intelligence general Hugo Carvajal (a.k.a. El Pollo), who was indicted in the U.S. District Court accusing Carvajal of coordinating the transport of 5,600 kilos (6.17 tons) of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico. Carvajal is a member of Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles, which sells drugs to the Sinaloa Cartel.

As I mentioned in July 2014,

Spanish journalist Emili Blasco reports that Carvajal allegedly “was in charge of procuring the drugs from the FARC and controlled the distribution process in the U.S. and Europe, along with laundering the drug money through PDVSA,” the government-owned oil company. Carvajal also is under investigation for his role on the attacks to the Colombian consulate and the Jewish center in Caracas.

Blasco reported in yesterday’s ABC that Venezuela security sources conveyed the information regarding the presence of El Chapo’s children to U.S. authorities, and that the Mexican government also would have been told.

Blasco mentions that DEA sources claim that El Chapo had visited Venezuela in August/September last year.

Right now El Chapo is back at the prison where he escaped from last year; According to Mexican officials, El Chapo’s extradition process could take at least a year.

Linked to by Ed Morrissey. Thank you!

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Venezuela: El Pollo as big fish

Mary O’Grady on today’s WSJ:
A Terrorist Big Fish Gets Away
The Netherlands refuses to extradite FARC ally Hugo Carvajal Barrios to the U.S.

While O’Grady contradicts herself on the criminals’ intent, saying, on the one hand, “America’s voracious appetite for illegal drugs has allowed violent political actors to create powerful transnational criminal organizations”, while on the other hand stating, “All of this terror is done in the name of social justice for Colombians,” the effect of current U.S. foreign policy is clear: The bottom line? (emphasis added)

Yet it’s not surprising that the Netherlands decided it would be less costly to be on the good side of the bad guys than to be on the bad side of the good guys. After six years of the Obama global retreat, any leader would be crazy to expect the U.S. to go to the mat for an ally, even one that stuck its neck out for Uncle Sam. So when Venezuela threatened military and economic retribution at the Netherlands Antilles if Carvajal was extradited, the Dutch foreign affairs minister relented.

Read the whole thing here.

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The Argentinian default Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerYes, Argentina defaulted, as predicted, which made Cristina bellyache some more, as U.S. judge scolds Argentina over debt remarks.

ARGENTINA
Argentina debt default: frustration on the streets
Bloomberg’s Willem Marx reports from Buenos Aires on what Standard & Poor’s is calling a default by the Argentine government

A Lesson in Economics for Argentina

Carlos Tevez’s father freed after kidnapping in Argentina
Juventus striker’s family reportedly paid a £28,000 ransom for his safe return

ARUBA
VenEconomy: The Absurdities of the Carvajal Case

BRAZIL
Brazil Secures $700 Million in Loans During Japanese PM’s Visit

CHILE
Chile under International Orders to Compensate Mapuche
Anti-Terrorist Law Proves Unenforceable, Pending Reform

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s Buenaventura on alert after ‘rebel’ attack
Authorities in the Colombian city of Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast, have temporarily banned the sale of alcohol and the carrying of arms.

Why Starbucks in Colombia is a good thing

CUBA
Reconciling

Cuban Political Prisoner of the Day, Alcibiades Guerra Marin, Aug. 2, 2014

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Puerto Rico, Dominican brace for Tropical Storm Bertha

ECUADOR
La DEA incauta aviones de empresa que tendría nexos con el gobierno ecuatoriano

EL SALVADOR
Salvadoran Authorities Charge Spanish Priest with Aiding Gangs

HONDURAS
Hope Dwindles for Hondurans Living in Peril

IMMIGRATION
SIGNS POSTED FOR ILLEGALS INCREASINGLY WRITTEN IN CHINESE
Illegals from China and over 70% of the world’s nations are flooding into America as its border collapses

MEXICO
Deal to stop migrants from boarding La Bestia train
Guatemala, Mexico and the United States have reached a deal to try to prevent migrants from jumping onto a freight train in an attempt to reach the US, according to Guatemalan officials.

Mexican Drug Lord Taunts the Authorities With Videos
In a line of work that usually operates out of the limelight, Servando Gómez has put himself — often with prominent people — in front of the camera.

Mexican media denounces ‘gag law’
Mexican journalists denounce a new law that introduces a number of restrictions on crime reporting in north-eastern Sinaloa state.

Mexican Fracking Opponents Lose a Big Round in the Senate

PANAMA
Panama, Canal Contractors Finalize Accord

PERU
Peru’s first-ever high-resolution carbon map could help the world breathe easier

Peru court order US mining firm to pay $163 million

PUERTO RICO
Minimum-Wage Hike Threatens 200,000 Puerto Rican Jobs
Half of Workforce Caught in Cross Hairs of Class-Warfare Folly

VENEZUELA
Did Nicolas Maduro Coerce Senator Landrieu?

“Anti-Imperialists” Mortgage Venezuela’s Future Abroad
China Preys on Incompetence, Ideological Naivity of Chavismo

The New Wave Of Elected Dictatorships Around The World

In Venezuela, imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez’s trial for inciting violence during riots has just begun while the country ranks among the world’s top in corruption and crime. If you believe Chavista state propaganda, the country’s problems wouldn’t exist if the US didn’t exist. In Iran, forget about a free press while the supreme leader effectively determines who can run for political office. As in Venezuela, Turkey, Egypt etc Iran’s judiciary is a power-arm of the regime. Need we mention symbiosis between mosque and state? In Turkey, the state is mandating several hours a week of religious indoctrination in schools while sponsoring widespread housing with no units for single living as high-ranking politicians polemically bully women into staying at home and having families. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Erdogan blames all manner of outside forces for his problems, America, Israel, Syria, US-based Gulenist Muslims and others. One more thing: since Vladimir Putin was the first to make this system respectable, the reader can just say ‘ditto Russia’ where Russia isn’t mentioned above.

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Colombia’s narco-subs

Argentina: Cristina gives bondholders the raspberry

Today’s illegal alien invasion update

Argentina defaults

Behold, the Hugo Chavez font

Is North Korea Selling (Cuban) Arms to Hamas?

El Pollo and Venezuela’s game of chicken: Venezuela exerted military pressure on Aruba

And now, MS-13 news

At Da Tech Guy Blog:
The US’s toothless sanctions against Venezuelans

Chicken run: The curious case of Venezuela’s Pollo Carvajal

At BlogHer:
Feels like 100

The week’s podcast:
Memories of old Havana PLUS US-Latin America stories of the week


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El Pollo and Venezuela’s game of chicken: Venezuela exerted military pressure on Aruba

In today’s WSJ, Aruba: Venezuela Pressured It Militarily
The Netherlands’ release of a former top Venezuelan official wanted by the U.S. for alleged drug trafficking came after Venezuela raised economic and military pressure on two Dutch islands in the Caribbean, officials said.

Aruba’s chief prosecutor Peter Blanken said that Venezuelan navy ships neared Aruba and Curaçao over the weekend as Dutch officials were debating what to do with Hugo Carvajal —Venezuela’s former chief of military intelligence who was jailed in Aruba last week on a U.S. warrant.

“The threat was there,” Mr. Blanken said. “We don’t know what their intentions were, but I think a lot of people in Aruba were scared that something would happen.”

Holland is a member of NATO and as such Aruba would be protected, as WSJ commenter Donald Hutchinson points out, but, in the Obama administration’s era of “smart diplomacy”, the Dutch couldn’t count on that:

Assuming that US intelligence was not asleep, all,it would take would be a fly over by US Navy jets and a notification that any offensive action would be met by the immediate destruction of their ships. Holland is a member of NATO and such actioned would clearly be sanctioned,
It would also be a devastating set back to the former bus driver running Venezuela for bringing shame to their military.
But what one might expect from a timid White House and a preoccupied State Department?

Then there’s the oil,

Mr. Blanken said Venezuela’s government also had threatened to sever Venezuela’s vital commercial air links to Aruba and Curaçao. Venezuela’s state oil company also threatened to withdraw from a contract to manage Curaçao’s refinery, Mr. Blanken said, which would have put at risk some 8,000 jobs.

To put that number of jobs in perspective, Aruba’s total population is 103,009.

In the “no sh*t, Sherlock” file, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman’s reaction was, “This is not the way law enforcement matters should be handled.” At least they didn’t #hashtag it.

Hugo Carvajal a.k.a. “”el Pollo” is one of the guys who took part in Hugo Chávez’s unsuccessful 1992 military coup, later rising to the rank of general, but with a sideline,

Mr. Carvajal’s role as one of the Chávez government’s key liaisons to guerrillas from Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, emerged after computers belonging to a slain guerrilla leader were captured by Colombian security forces in 2008.

Here’s the indictment in the U.S. District Court accusing Carvajal of coordinating the transport of 5,600 kilos (6.17 tons) of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico.

In addition to good’ol military thuggery, Miguel Octavio asserts that the Netherlands caved in (emphasis added):

Clearly, everyone applied pressure, but the weak link did not turn out to be Aruba as I suggested on my first post, but rather The Netherlands, as reportedly even Russia played a role, exchanging concessions on the Ucraine plane for helping release Carvajal. No matter what anyone says or how this is interpreted, it was a severe blow to the US, who would have loved to get Carvajal onshore.

One of my sources also mentions that team Obama had about 30 days to hand over its Extradition Request to Aruba but failed to; the Treasury Dept, the DEA and a U.S. District Court (mentioned above) had indicted him last year. It reminds me of drug kingpin Walid Makled, who was released to Venezuela by Santos of Colombia after the U.S. dragged its feet.

We’re in the best of hands.

PS,
While the Dutch allow Carvajal diplomatic immunity, the Egyptians search Secretary of State John Kerry, which was no biggie, but he fumes over Israel’s criticism.

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Aruba: El Pollo flew the coop

Well, that didn’t take long!

Hugo Carvajal, a.k.a. “El Pollo” (the chicken), the Venezuelan consul candidate accused of providing weapons to the FARC, working with Iranian intelligence, and who’s under investigation for his role on the attacks to the Colombian consulate and the Jewish center in Caracas, was released by Aruban authorities, after Holland decided he did qualify for diplomatic immunity but declared him person non-grata.

This is yet another instance where America is perceived as weak, since

The arrest was based on a formal request from the United States. [Aruba’s chief prosecutor Peter] Blanken said Aruba was “obliged to cooperate” because of a treaty with the United States.

Carvajal immediately flew back to Caracas, in time to attend the PSUV congress and walk into Nicolas Maduro’s arms:

Daniel Duquenal:

The thing is that the swift, I repeat the word, retrieval of Carvajal means that not only the army has acted but also the drug traffickers, and all the thugs that could be affected

Raúl Stolk, in a post titled Chicken Run,

This, of course, raises a bunch of questions:

  • Has the US anything to say? What about the request for extradition?
  • Jose Ignacio Hernandez explained at Prodavinci that immunity alone would not suffice to protect Carvajal if the reason for his detention was not related to his functions as head of the Venezuelan Consulate in Aruba. Then, why would the Dutch just go with Venezuela’s lame arguments to release the man?
  • Does everybody fear Diosdado? (Damn!)
  • Is dealing drugs ok now?

Miguel Octavio has a lot more questions:

-Why did Maduro want to name Carvajal as Consul to Aruba specifically? Is it related to the island being an offshore financial center?

-Why would a legal resident of the US, lend or lease his US company’s jet to someone in the US drug kingpin list in the Patriot’s Act era?

Juan Cristobal Nagel asks, Is there a link between Petrocaribe and Carvajal?

The Caribbean economies are mighty fragile. The last thing the US, the Netherlands, and other colonial powers need … is for Maduro’s instability to spill over into the islands.

Interesting question, but I think Nagel may overestimate U.S. influence on this issue.

UPDATE:
More from Venezuela-Europa:

So: the man in charge of the foreign relations for the  Kingdom of the Netherlands took the decision to liberate a man who

  1. came in with a false passport,
  2. had over $20000 with him and had not declared that money
  3. had not received the placet to become a consul,
  4. was accused by the US of having tortured and murdered two Colombian officials, of having helped a terrorist organisation and being responsible for cocaine trafficking.

Why?

To keep the caged bird from singing?

Smart diplomacy!:

A senior U.S. official said the U.S. had been blindsided by the Dutch

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Aruba: Venezuelan consul detained on drug charges

The other pollos.

Three chavistas indicted for conspiring with Colombian FARC drug traffickers to export cocaine to the U.S.:

  • Hugo Carvajal, a.k.a. “”el Pollo,” a former chief of Venezuelan military intelligence, detained in Aruba while awaiting confirmation as Nicolás Maduro’s consul-general to Aruba,
  • former Venezuelan judge, Benny Palmeri-Bacchi, arrested last week in Miami,
  • and the former head of Interpol in Venezuela, Rodolfo McTurk, whereabouts were unknown.

Daniel Duquenal speculates,

If indeed Carvajal is sent to the US, beyond diplomatic implications that this will entail, the local consequences will be high. There are possibly dozens and dozens of chavista high officials with dossiers under investigation and the reality for them has suddenly changed. Never mind that if Carvajal is indeed sent to the US, he may add a lot to these dossiers.

In addition to providing weapons to the FARC, Carvajal had been allegedly working with Iranian intelligence, and is under investigation for his role on the attacks to the Colombian consulate, and the Jewish center in Caracas.

WSJ:

In the Miami indictment unsealed Thursday, Mr. Carvajal is accused of taking bribes from late Colombian kingpin Wilber Varela, who was killed in 2008, and in return allowing Mr. Varela to export cocaine to the U.S. from Venezuela and avoid arrest by Venezuelan authorities.

Carvajal directly dealt with one-time of the world’s top three drug kingpins, Walid Makled, according to Makled himself,

“For example, I used to give a weekly fee of 200 million bolívares (about $50,000 at the time), and 100 million was for General Hugo Carvajal,” Mr. Makled said.

Makled went on trial in Venezuela since the Obama administration dragged its feet; I do not know the outcome of the trial.

Carvajal is now seeking diplomatic immunity in Aruba.

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