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

January 15, 2018 By Fausta

Venezuela: Where was Sean Penn?

Last Friday I asked, Speaking of sh**holes, where were you?,

Were you outraged when Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez declared himself a Marxist and took over private property and the media? Would having people kill zoo animals for food qualify a country as a shithole?

Today Rachel Campos-Duffy wants too know Who is Sean Penn to lecture Trump about compassion?

So what has Sean Penn said about these horrible indignities and abuses suffered by the Venezuelan people? Nothing. Where is his “compassionate” op-ed to show concern for the victims of Venezuelan socialism and repression? Silence.

Well, I dug through this blog’s archives, and found this gem from 2011: Back then Hugo Chávez was still alive, and Sean had  invited Charlie Sheen to Haiti, as if the blighted country hadn’t had enough yet, and Charlie accepted.

I posted,

Sean’s meeting with Hugo Chávez (link in Portuguese) this weekend to discuss Hugo’s proposal to send a goodwill peace commission to Libya. Chávez claims (link in Spanish) Sean’s worried about what’s going on in Libya, as if there weren’t enough reasons to worry about what’s going on in Venezuela.

Once Sean and Hugo work out the Libya situation, Sean will be heading to Haiti with Charlie next week.

I never did find out if Charlie made it to Haiti, but Sean later on became pals with Argentina’s Cristina Fernández and Mexico’s drug lord El Chapo.

Sean wasn’t the only American actor hangin’ with Hugo. Kevin Spacey and Tim Robbins also did, and Hugo bankrolled Danny Glover to the tune of $20 million to produce two movies, [CORRECTION old link; go here for a current link] one of which was – wait for it – a bio of Toussaint D’Overture, the Haitian slave that led the revolt against the French and declared himself emperor.

Haiti’s per capita GDP is US$739.60.

So I ask again, where are they?

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Filed Under: Fausta's blog, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela Tagged With: Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn

January 12, 2016 By Fausta

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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Filed Under: crime, drugs, Mexico Tagged With: Capt. Louis Renault, Cartel de los Soles, Chapo Guzmán, Emili J. Blasco, Fausta's blog, Hugo Carvajal a.k.a. ""el Pollo, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Sean Penn, Sinaloa Cartel

March 5, 2011 By Fausta

Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, and Hugo Chavez to the rescue!

The dynamic trio are on the job to solve Haiti’s and Libya’s problems! Here’s how it’s developing:

Sean Penn has come to Charlie Sheen’s defense, saying that Carlos Irwin Estevez is “a guy who has a clearer view of the nature of the world around him than is sometimes comfortable to have”.

I kid you not:
Sean Penn Speaks Out on His Friend Charlie Sheen

Sean Penn on Sheen: “When you divorce the moral judgments, which I prefer to do, I see a guy who has a clearer view of the nature of the world around him than is sometimes comfortable to have. Those are the sort of people who have a tendency to find altered states. But he’s a very ironic character. He’s got pretension in the crosshairs of his wit. I think to a large degree he’s saying, ‘Guys, we’re only going to be here once, so lighten the f–k up.’”

I like that, “He’s got pretension in the crosshairs of his wit.”

Sean didn’t stop there; he invited Charlie to Haiti, as if the blighted country hasn’t had enough yet, and Charlie accepted while using an inappropriate metaphor (emphasis added),

In a conversation with “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, Sheen said, “I’m excited as hell because, you know, if I can bring the attention of the world down there, then clearly this tsunami keeps cresting.”

Ugh. Poor choice of words, Charlie.

What the above articles don’t mention is that between bromides about pretension and invites to Haiti, Sean’s visiting Venezuela – and Sean’s worried “about what’s going on.”

Sean didn’t go into details about what that meant.

However, Sean’s meeting with Hugo Chávez (link in Portuguese) this weekend to discuss Hugo’s proposal to send a goodwill peace commission to Libya. Chávez claims (link in Spanish) Sean’s worried about what’s going on in Libya, as if there weren’t enough reasons to worry about what’s going on in Venezuela.

Once Sean and Hugo work out the Libya situation, Sean will be heading to Haiti with Charlie next week.

No word as to whether Sean will be introducing Charlie to Hugo any time soon.

Cross-posted in The Greenroom.

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Filed Under: Communism, Haiti, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela Tagged With: Charlie Sheen, Fausta's blog, Sean Penn

August 16, 2010 By Fausta

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

ARGENTINA
Kirchner presiona a los jueces de la Corte por la Ley de Medios

BRAZIL
President’s Chosen Successor Widens Lead in Brazil Poll

Still on top

American brothers

CHILE
The trapped Chilean miners

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s new president
Opening gambits
Juan Manuel Santos takes charge

His own man

Colombia, Venezuela Reestablish Diplomatic Ties


El Gobierno heroico de Álvaro Uribe

Colombia and Venezuela to restore political ties

CUBA
CUBAN BLOGGER ARRESTED BY REGIME

Audio evidence of the Castro regime’s brutal repression of Reina Luisa Tamayo Otro domingo de represión contra Reina Luisa Zapata Tamayo y sus familiares.

Cuba’s Cash-for-Doctors Program
Thousands of its health-care missionaries flee mistreatment.

Cuba’s Fidel Castro
A ghost reappears
Fidel’s return is a mixed blessing for his brother

The desperate “Cuba Expert”

Six freed Cubans demand refugee status; say they will sue Spain if they don’t get it

The Wait

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Human Rights Commission expresses concern over threats to Dominican journalist

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s Chevron shakedown
Environmental case designed to grab billions

GUYANA/USA
2 Are Convicted in Plot to Bomb Kennedy Airport

HAITI
Clouds gather over Wyclef Jean’s Haiti bid

Sean Penn questions Wyclef Jean bid for Haitian presidency

HONDURAS
La Influencia Militar Alemana en Honduras

La Gringa’s Cinnamon Ice Cream

En la cocina

Don’t forget to check out what’s new at Honduras blogs, where I found the superfantastic May-hem

MEXICO
Mexico and drugs
Thinking the unthinkable
Amid drug-war weariness, Felipe Calderón calls for a debate on legalisation

Fox vs. Calderón, Round Six Million

Obama, Border Security and The Emerging Failed State of Mexico

Mexican Police Protest Corruption in Ciudad Juarez


MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexico drug cartels thrive despite Calderon’s offensive
Nearly four years after President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led crackdown, the cartels are smuggling more narcotics into the U.S., amassing bigger fortunes and extending dominion at home.

NICARAGUA
Quote of the day: Nicaragua

PANAMA
Should a road be built to connect Panama and Colombia?

Volvo Gets Order For 1,000 Buses To Panama City

PARAGUAY
Doctors confirm Paraguay’s Lugo has cancer. Let’s hope the SOB pays his child support: New paternity test for Paraguay’s President Lugo
Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo has been ordered to take a DNA test to see if he is the father of a two-year-old boy, as the child’s mother claims

PERU
Tensions Over Chinese Mining Venture in Peru

Peru stock market integration with Colombia, Chile faces obstacles, says analyst

URUGUAY
Sonia Breccia trafico de influencia con Tabare Vasquez

VENEZUELA
San Pedro Alejandrino, as much a place of reckoning as ever

Latin American brawl

The Case of the Vanishing Monetary Base Data

Barrio de lejos, barrio de cerca, barrio cara a cara…

Military Prosecutor goes after retired General for denouncing Cuban presence in Armed Forces

The Human Wrongs of Hugo Chavez

IMMIGRATION
Florida Attorney General Proposes Stricter Immigration Law

On ICE

Sheriffs unhappy with ICE chief visit

The Laredo Truthers Ride Again Laredo “invasion” nonsense rides again

RADIO
Conservative Hispanic radio show debuts in Dallas; KVCE live feed here

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Filed Under: Argentina, Brazil, Caribbean, Carnival of Latin America, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Florida, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, illegal immigration, immigration, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Fernando Lugo, Reina Luisa Zapata Tamayo, Sean Penn, Wyclef Jean

October 28, 2009 By Fausta

Lifestyles of the rich and famous Communists

douglasdk271001

Not that I’m fond of class struggle, but isn’t it ironic that Hollywood millionaire Sean Penn is visiting Caracas with Hugo Chavez, and Michael Douglas is touring Old Havana after visiting with Raul Castro.

Sean was in Cuba at the expense of Vanity Fair and the Huffington Post, who apparently had him interview Fidel Castro.

Liberals must have irony-poor blood.

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Michael Douglas, Sean Penn

October 21, 2008 By Fausta

Today at 11AM Eastern: Sean Penn goes to Caracas… again


In today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America I’ll talk about Sean Penn’s unannounced visit to Caracas. He arrived in the middle of a huge blackout (and the three top executives of the state-owned utility are now under arrest), but later on Hugo showed Sean some gas, even when Sean’s picture was not broadcast in the state-owned media.

Here are a couple of links on the trip:
Venezuela construirá “una base naval de grandes proporciones” en Margarita Venezuela plans new Caribbean naval base. Chavez says a naval base there will help authorities fight drug trafficking.

Chávez se dió un baño de masas en Margarita (con Sean Penn)

Humor, probably NSFW: Sean Penn Visits Hugo Chavez on Behalf of Obama

In other Hugo news, according to this report from Venezuelan magazine Version Final, Hugo spends $45,000 in suits, $200,000 in clothes and $20,000 in shoes annually. He’s got to keep himself in true Hollywood style indeed. In spite of that, “Hugo Chávez ya no está de moda en Europa”, Hugo’s no longer in fashion in Europe.

I wonder if Sean will pen an angry letter, or if he called in for pizza while visiting the gas plant.

Chat’s open at 10:45AM, and the call in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!
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Filed Under: Blog Talk Radio, Hugo Chavez, movies, Sean Penn, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Sean Penn

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