Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

January 30, 2018 By Fausta

El Chapo promises to not kill jurors

It’s jailbird Tuesday!

“That’s a great jury you put together“?

Notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán promises he won’t kill any jurors seated in his upcoming federal court trial, arguing it’s therefore unnecessary to keep them anonymous and under armed guard as prosecutors have asked.

HOW WEST SIDE BUST LED THE FEDS TO ‘EL CHAPO’. STREET-LEVEL DEAL SPARKED PROBE OF WORLD’S NO. 1 DRUG KINGPIN, INTERVIEWS, RECORDS SHOW

Authorities have never revealed that the case against the man who some believe was the biggest drug kingpin in the world began with Baines, a mid-level dealer whose father owned a grocery store in Austin and also drove a bus for the CTA.

But a Sun-Times review of court records and interviews with Baines and others involved in the case, including a key former federal prosecutor, has found that a Drug Enforcement Administration task force used a web of informants and hundreds of wiretapped calls to trace a path that ultimately led from Baines to El Chapo.

“We went from the streets of Chicago to the mountaintops of Mexico,” says Thomas Shakeshaft, a former assistant U.S. attorney who supervised each phase of the investigation. “We started a case against the Traveling Vice Lords on the West Side of Chicago and went all the way up.

“Before Sean Penn flew down to Mexico with [actress] Kate del Castillo and recorded this thing where Chapo admitted he was the largest drug-trafficker in the world, we had the only legally admissible voice recording of Chapo in the world.”

Video,

There are even Breaking Bad-like identical twins*,  Pedro “Peter” Flores and Margarito “Junior” Flores.

The twins agreed to cooperate with U.S. investigators in late 2008, court records show, and Pedro Flores recorded a damning phone conversation with his supplier — El Chapo. The recording became the key evidence in the 2009 federal indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Read the whole thing.

————————————————-

*Breaking Bad twins,

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Filed Under: cocaine, crime, Fausta's blog, Mexico Tagged With: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Junior Flores, Kate del Castillo, Peter Flores, Sean Penn

February 9, 2016 By Fausta

Mexico: Del Castillo crying foul over Sean Penn

Once upon a time, in a land far, far, away where whores had hearts of gold and looked like pretty extras in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, pimps were equal opportunity employers hiring girl bookkeepers, and smugglers had integrity and mourned their dead human cargo, a beautiful, downtrodden, tequila-drinking, spunky, athletic girl who could throw a punch rose to the top of the illegal drug trade, and retired to pregnancy, riches, safety and anonymity after avenging her husband’s death . . . the beloved husband being a pilot who was killed for stealing and reselling drugs that belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel.

It sounds like the intro to Andrew Klavan‘s podcast, but it’s not: It is the plot of the hugely successful Mexican-Spanish soap opera La Reina del Sur, a cliffhanger Telemundo TV series based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s thriller of the same name.

Make no mistake: Del Castillo’s character glamorizes crime to the point of making it a viable (albeit risky) career choice.

As we know by now, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman – whose family has registered several trademarks with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property for licensing purposes – is an avid fan of both the drug trade-glamorizing series and its star, Kate del Castillo.

El Chapo knows good PR when he sees it.

Joaquin and Kate tweeted each other, expressed mutual admiration, and agreed to meet and discuss a tequila distributorship.

Joaquin let it be known he wanted a movie about his life. Kate del Castillo, Sean Penn,

Spaniard José Ibáñez-Martín Pira and Argentinean Fernando Sulichin traveled to El Chapo’s hideout in the mountains of Durango state with the two stars to discuss the possibility of filming the drug lord’s story.

Things were moving right along, until Sean’s article came out in Rolling Stone. Now the authorities in two countries want to question her, and she feels “betrayed” by Sean Penn after meeting with ‘El Chapo’ (emphasis added)

Now facing an arrest warrant by Mexican prosecutors who want to question her about her relationship with El Chapo, Del Castillo says she “feels betrayed and used” by Penn, according to her lawyer.

Penn’s photograph standing next to the world’s most powerful drug lord made headlines around the globe, as well as his Rolling Stone article and the short video included with it in which El Chapo answers several questions asked by one of his aides.

But while Mexican authorities have said they will not investigate Penn, they insist on questioning Del Castillo for alleged money laundering and trying to set up a tequila business with Guzmán before he was captured on January 8.

Of course, del Castillo’s lawyer vehemently denies any relationship between her and el Chapo. She would rather be questioned in the U.S. and not in Mexico, just in case.

But fear not, Del Castillo’s lawyer says the biopic about Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is going ahead.

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Filed Under: celebrities, crime, drugs, Fausta's blog, Mexico, Sean Penn Tagged With: Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Fausta' blog, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Kate del Castillo, La Reina del Sur

February 8, 2016 By Fausta

The Superbowl weekend Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerARGENTINA
Argentina in $6.5bn offer to debt holdouts after its 2001 default on $100bn.

Great to be back in Buenos Aires. Had a lovely walk in the park today. See you all at the show on Sunday! pic.twitter.com/V4Ws2bueRf

— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) February 6, 2016

BOLIVIA
Gabriela Zapata vive en una lujosa vivienda que pertenecía al político Guillermo Fortún

Bolivia’s Morales reveals that in 2007 he had a child that died

BRAZIL
Brazil Health Researchers Say Zika Virus Is Active in Saliva, Urine. Pregnant women advised to take precautions to avoid coming in contact with others’ saliva; other researchers suggest such fears are overblown

Palestinian Authority opens embassy in Brasilia

CHILE
Privatization success: Chilean Pension Funds Grow 4.1% Year-on-Year in January

COLOMBIA
Colombia is preparing for peace. So are its drug traffickers. If FARC guerrillas accept a peace deal, the fight over the country’s cocaine business may escalate.

Islamist Militants Join Latin American Drug Lords in Explosive Duo. Hezbollah Seeks Closer Links with Drug Cartels Due to Iran’s Falling Oil Revenues

This week, the DEA announced the arrests of Hezbollah operatives with connections to ‘La Oficina de Envigado,’ a major Colombian Drug Trafficking organization responsible for a large share of the cocaine shipped to US and European markets. The presence in Latin America of Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based and Iran-backed Shi’a Islamic terror group is hardly news.

The group has been active in money laundering and other illicit activities in the region for decades, predominantly in the lawless tri-border region between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. Most notably, Hezbollah bombed a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 85 and wounding hundreds. However, the recent increase in cooperation with drug traffickers, as evidenced by these high-profile arrests, represents an alarming trend and a dangerous prospect for the future of hemispheric security.

Falling oil prices are affecting Iran’s economy, and Hezbollah must diversify and pursue other revenue streams. The lucrative Latin American drug trade is a natural choice.

White House seeks to boost aid to Colombia to $450 million

President Barack Obama promised to throw the White House’s full support behind the Colombian government’s efforts to sign a historic peace agreement with leftist rebels, including a pledge of $450 million in aid annually to help demobilize rebels who’ve been fighting an insurgency for 51 years.

The ELN in action, Colombian Policeman Killed in Rebel Attack

Comunicado- Plan Colombia https://t.co/tNdMkaYWMS

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) February 5, 2016

COSTA RICA
2nd Group of Cuban Migrants Stuck in Costa Rica Flown Out

CUBA
Pope Che’s going back to Cuba: In Historic Move, Pope to Meet With Leader of Russian Orthodox Church

ECUADOR
Ecuador protests to Turkey over Erdogan speech scuffle

Ecuador has protested to Turkey over an incident in which demonstrators were violently ejected during a speech by visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital, Quito.

Video:

EL SALVADOR
El Salvador detains ex-soldiers for 1989 Jesuit priest killings

HAITI
Crisis in Haiti turns deadly as power vacuum looms

Protesters in Haiti have beaten a man to death in a clash with ex-soldiers, as political uncertainty continues.
Witnesses say the crowd in the capital Port-au-Prince attacked the man, thinking that he was from the country’s disbanded military.

JAMAICA
Jamaica Ready to Celebrate 71st Anniversary of Birth of Bob Marley

LATIN AMERICA
A Channel 2 Action News investigation discovered a leaked secret document showing a spike in people from terrorist nations illegally crossing our country’s Southern border.

Congratulations to Eneas Biglione: HACER entre los 75 centros de estudios más influyentes de EEUU

MEXICO
“La reina del sur” in hot water: Mexican Judge Grants Del Castillo Protection against Arrest

The runaway cops visit the burnt-out unit,

PANAMA
Panama expected to follow Brazil’s lead and release genetically modified mosquitoes whose offspring die as larvae in a bid to stop the spread of the terrifying Zika virus

PERU
Peru may bar presidential hopeful from April elections

PUERTO RICO
State of emergency declared in Puerto-Rico as Zika cases climb to 22

VENEZUELA
Venezuela Is Socialist, Senator Sanders. Any Questions?

Printing Error. Venezuela is now importing 100 bolivar bills by the planeload: more banknotes, actually, than the whole of the European Union needs.



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Catholic Church, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, HACER, Haiti, Jamaica, Latin America, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Pope Francis I, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Tagged With: Bob Marley, ELN, Fausta' blog, Gabriela Zapata, Hezbollah, Kate del Castillo, Paco Almaraz, Zika virus

January 23, 2016 By Fausta

En español: Kate del Castillo en la Unidad de Quemados



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Filed Under: humor, Mexico Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Kate del Castillo, Paco Almaraz

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