Tag Archives: Joaquin Guzman

Can El Chapo face a murder rap?

February 12, 2019 kanelis2012

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been convicted of 10 drug-related felonies. The man is heading for a life in prison.

I have this thought I want to share.

The miserable drug lord is one of the world’s most notorious criminals, responsible for untold misery and mayhem. He’ll likely never breath freely ever again.

But I’m wondering: Do U.S. federal statutes allow for a trial and potential conviction on murder charges if it can be proven that anyone who consumed drugs provided by El Chapo’s network died from that consumption? Can there be a case made that El Chapo’s drug-running activity contributed directly to anyone’s death and for that can he stand trial on murder charges?

Just wondering out loud, man.

Well, goodbye El Chapo. Here’s to a life in hell on Earth and to an eternity in the actual hell.

International news, media news

Penn fails to make the case

January 18, 2016 kanelis2012 2 Comments

Sean Penn invented a word last night on “60 Minutes.”

He called himself an “experiental” journalist.

I’ve been working with words for, oh, damn near 40 years. I consider myself a journalist. I worked at four newspapers in two states. I enjoyed some modest success during my career.

“Experiental”? What the . . . ?

Penn is a movie actor of some renown. He recently ventured to Mexico, where he shook hands with Joaquin Guzman, aka El Chapo, the then-fugitive drug lord; he had escaped in early 2015 from a maximum security prison in Mexico. Penn interviewed this supremely evil individual for a 10,000-word article he wrote for Rolling Stone.

I watched with considerable pain in my gut as Penn sought to explain to CBS News correspondent Charlie Rose what he hoped to accomplish by writing a story about El Chapo, who was recaptured by Mexican authorities the day after the magazine article hit the streets.

I think I heard a tinge of sympathy in this guy’s voice as he tried to relay Guzman’s reasons for peddling drugs, for delivering so much misery to so many millions of people, for being responsible for the deaths of thousands of individuals with whom he has come in contact.

I also believe I detected a look of incredulity in Rose’s face as Penn offered his explanations.

And then Penn would drop that hideous, made-up adjective that he put in front of the word “journalist.”

This thought doesn’t come from me, but I’ll pass on what a friend of mine said this morning on social media.

My friend, too, is a trained journalist. He wants to know if he can now seek to become an “experiental movie actor.”

***

This just in: I’m advised that “experiental” is a real word. I stand corrected on that particular point.

entertainment news, International news, legal news, media news, national news

El Chapo saga takes strange turn

January 10, 2016 kanelis2012

I’m trying to figure this one out and, so help me, this item has me puzzled to the max.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped six months ago from a maximum-security prison in Mexico. He is one of the world’s most notorious drug lords, responsible for dealing in death while peddling meth, heroin and assorted other killer drugs.

So, as one who practiced journalism for more than 36 years, I find myself asking tonight: If given a chance to interview this notorious criminal, would I accept the chance to do so or would I blow the whistle on his whereabouts to the authorities who are looking for him?

The actor Sean Penn took the former course. He interviewed El Chapo for a Rolling Stone interview several months ago.

I don’t think I would have done that.

Then again, Penn is an actor.

I’m also wondering tonight whether Penn has the same sense of outrage that El Chapo was on the lam that many others — such as yours truly — have had as he avoided capture by the authorities.

The Mexican police caught up with him and Guzman is now facing extradition to the United States.

I believe it’s fair to ask: What was Sean Penn thinking?

According to the New York Times: “Mr. Penn and Mr. Guzmán spoke for seven hours, the story reports, at a compound amid dense jungle. The topics of conversation turned in unexpected directions. At one stage, Mr. Penn brought up Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate; there were some reports that Mr. Guzmán had put a $100 million bounty on Mr. Trump after he made comments offensive to Mexicans. ‘Ah! Mi amigo!’ Mr. Guzmán responded.”

Perhaps there’s something about this story that goes over my head. I’ll admit that I’ve never been given a chance to interview one of the world’s most wanted fugitives . . . so I have no direct knowledge of how I’d respond to such an opportunity.

Still, I find it strange in the extreme that a celebrity of Penn’s stature — someone with no apparent experience as a journalist — would seemingly turn a blind eye toward the circumstances that led to an interview subject’s arrest and conviction while he is seeking to avoid being thrown back into the slammer.

Is it fair to question Penn’s loyalty?

Hmmm. I think I just did.

International news

El Chapo back in the slammer

January 8, 2016 kanelis2012

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the notorious Mexican drug dealer, has been re-arrested.

Mexican authorities managed to corral the infamous drug cartel lord after only six months on the lam; he’d escaped from a “maximum-security” prison.

I don’t know how they define “maximum security” in Mexico, but my hunch is that they’d better redefine it . . . or toughen security measures in their hard-time lockups to ensure that they can keep the bad guys behind bars.

My hope for El Chapo is that this monster gets buried deep inside the stoutest walls and behind countless rows of razor wire to make sure he remains locked up for as long he continues to draw breath.

Read the story here.

International news, Intgernational news, State news

‘Inside job’ helped free El Chapo?

July 15, 2015 kanelis2012

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul is on point with an assertion that Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman had inside help when he escaped from that maximum-security prison in Mexico.

The Texas Republican’s contention also adds a serious twist to the difficulty in protecting our territory against foreign enemies. They’re right across our borders.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/14/mccaul-absurd-think-guzman-fled-without-inside-hel/

McCaul chairs the House Homeland Security Committee and he has said that in order for the notorious and highly dangerous drug kingpin to escape from prison he needed help from prison officials. That means Mexican government officials. And that also means we need to broaden our attention to those who would do us harm to those who live on our very continent.

OK, so it’s not exactly a scoop to suggest that danger lurks far closer than the Middle East, South Asia, or East Africa.

McCaul’s comments come after a leading Democrat on the House panel, Filemon Vela, also of Texas, leveled a similar blast at Mexican authorities. So the concern and the fear cross party lines.

“The idea that there wasn’t a complicity and corruption going on when you got a mile-long tunnel underneath the facility is absolutely absurd,” McCaul said on CNN.

Here’s an idea: When the authorities capture Guzman, let’s redouble our efforts to extradite him to the United States, where he and his drug cartel inflict most of their damage. McCaul and others in Congress tried, and failed, after Guzman’s first escape from maximum-security.

Let’s also hope the authorities can capture this monster quickly.

International news

Another mind-blogging prison escape

July 14, 2015 kanelis2012

Let’s call 2015 the Year of the Mind-Boggling Prison Escape.

Two men broke out of a New York maximum-security lockup a few weeks ago. They were the first escapees ever in the century-old prison. One of them was shot to death; the other was captured and has been returned to prison.

Now comes the escape of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman from a maximum-security prison in Mexico.

This one might be even more amazing.

Guzman has busted out of the prison for the second time. He is one of Mexico’s most notorious drug dealers. He’s very rich. He’s also very dangerous.

http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-hunts-drug-lord-prison-tunnel-escape-052044606.html

Mexican authorities have been embarrassed in the extreme over this breakout. Guzman now becomes the most wanted man in Mexico.

Just as the New York prisoners — Richard Matt and David Sweat — had help from the inside, it appears Guzman had similar help to enable him to dig a tunnel nearly a full mile from under his cell.

Here’s a chance for the United States to lend its considerable intelligence and law enforcement capability to Mexico, which doesn’t really lack the resources. But this guy is a seriously bad dude.

And the Mexican corrections establishment needs to do some ultra-serious examination of a system that enabled one of the world’s most heinous drug kingpins to escape this prison — again!

High Plains Blogger