Page 11 - Aruba Today
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Wednesday 13 January 2016
Mexico ruling may Mexico mounted huge manhunt to catch “El Chapo”
jeopardize case of
K. CORCORAN Even so, it took six months ment Administration, who and striking a relationship
missing students Associated Press to catch him, with Mexi- also was briefed on the there,” Vigil said, citing in-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The can news media carrying operation. “The only way telligence sources.
MARIA VERZA capture of Joaquin “El repeated reports of ma- was by saturating the area Four days after Penn’s Oct.
Associated Press Chapo” Guzman followed rine raids into the moun- where he was. 2 interview, soldiers staged
MEXICO CITY (AP) — An the most intensive man- tains of Guzman’s native “It caused him to go to a fierce operations in the
appeals court ruling is hunt in modern Mexican Sinaloa state. Guzman was safe house in Los Mochis. area of Tamazula, Duran-
threatening to derail Mex- history, with at least 2,500 nabbed early Friday morn- He knew that was going to go, where the meeting with
ico’s effort to prosecute security and intelligence ing after a shootout in the make him vulnerable, but Penn and Del Castillo took
suspects in one of its most agents dedicated to get-
notorious crimes of recent ting a man whose escape Bullet holes riddle the walls of the second floor of the home that marines raided in their search for
years: the disappearance had personally embar- Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in Los Mochis, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016.
and presumed murder of rassed the nation’s presi-
43 students in Guerrero dent. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
state.The injunction, issued The government says the
late last year but not yet hunt involved piecing to- city of Los Mochis that killed he had no choice. place. The ex-official said
publicized, orders the state gether information from five of his men and wound- Every phone call or text, it took that time to put to-
judge overseeing the case intelligence, data, interro- ed one marine. every movement in the re- gether the intelligence and
to correct flaws in its case gations and raids — as well The former official inter- gion was analyzed, the ex- mount a raid.
against 22 police officers as monitoring actors Sean viewed Guzman when he official said, including Guz- In the end, Guzman nar-
who are accused of killing Penn and Kate del Castillo was arrested the first time man’s Oct. 2 meeting with rowly escaped.
four people on the night as they came to interview in 1993 and led operations Penn and del Castillo. Security teams had kept
the students vanished. the world’s most wanted over the years in the re- He and Vigil said that Del watch on several proper-
The case of the 43 teach- trafficker. mote mountains of Sinaloa Castillo’s phone calls, texts ties related to Guzman in
ers’ college students is one While Mexican authorities and Durango states, known and other communications and around Los Mochis
of the most widely protest- had spent decades chas- as the Golden Triangle, af- must have been monitored since October, he said. But
ed and troubling examples ing Guzman, the chase fol- ter Guzman first escaped since she had her first real it was only last week that
of human rights abuses in lowing his July escape from a maximum security facility contact with Guzman last they started noticing a flur-
Mexico’s recent history — a top-security prison was in 2001. He said the size of year, while he was still in ry of activity in one of the
one that has shaken faith different for two reasons, those operations involved prison. Everyone wanted to houses in an upscale neigh-
in all levels of government. said a former government only around 60 troops, not tell his story, but he said he borhood. Intelligence indi-
Federal prosecutors say intelligence official who hundreds. would only work with the cated that Guzman’s wife,
the local police killed sev- spoke on condition of ano- “It was obviously expensive, Mexican actress, who the Emma Coronel, had ar-
eral people, rounded up nymity because he wasn’t but they knew they had to ex-official called “Mexico’s rived with their twin daugh-
the students and handed authorized to discuss the flush Chapo Guzman out,” Sharon Stone.” ters to celebrate the Feast
them over to a drug car- case. said Michael Vigil, former “The movie was second- of the Three Kings, a major
tel, which killed them, pos- “One, El Chapo stopped head of international oper- ary. The first motivation was Christmas-season holiday
sibly suspecting they were being clandestine. He ations at the Drug Enforce- meeting Kate del Castillo for Mexican children. q
linked to rivals. left the mountain. He met
But the bodies have not with people, as we now
been found, the motives know. That made it easier
are in dispute and outside for intelligence units to find
investigators have suggest- him,” said the ex-official,
ed that state and perhaps who maintains sources in-
even federal agents may side security operations.
have played a role in the “The other factor: there
disappearances. were, from the time of the
The injunction, which came escape, 2,500 people from
in response to an appeal various security agencies
of the charges by lawyers exclusively dedicated ... to
for the 22 police officers, mount a successful opera-
found prosecutorial errors tion.”
including inconsistent testi- President Enrique Pena Ni-
mony and scant evidence. eto’s office and the attor-
If those can’t be fixed, the ney general’s office didn’t
case would be thrown out. respond to attempts by The
The appellate ruling shows Associated Press to confirm
the entire case was built on the number, but others
“foundations of mud,” said who had been briefed said
Sayuri Herrera, the lawyer it was at least 2,500.
for the family of Julio Cesar
Mondragon.q
