The verdict against drug kingpin El Chapo conveys primarily a sense of justice. But the really crucial questions were not asked in the process, says DW-guest columnist Anabel Hernández.
The from Mexico to the United States drug boss El Chapo delivered in January 2017 at the time of his arrival in New York
The judgment of 17. July, the Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo, went around the world. He got a life sentence plus 30 years in prison and, in addition to the repayment of the alleged 12.6 billion dollars, that should have been in 20 years, the criminal career of accumulated, was convicted, caused many of the less initiated observers who followed the “trial of the century” as a TV series, satisfaction. Undoubtedly, this process was one of the world’s most well-known of this type, also thanks to the media and the social networks.
The depth of the case of a myth
It’s ironic. At the end of El Chapo, but became world famous. After that, he had longed for since the days when he had to leave at the age of seven years, the elementary school, to help his father in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in the illegal cultivation of drugs. But most likely, he has presented his fame differently. For three months he sat in the dock in Brooklyn, New York. For the first Time, he was locked in a cold cell with no privileges, had to deputies, the testimony of fourteen former partners, employees and even a former Mexican Congress, and, Beloved, listen. They all gave testimony about bizarre stories full of violence, revenge and cruelty.
Of his lawyers, he was obliged to be Silent, because any statement would have, in turn, made things only worse. The last public words of the former drug-boss was in front of the judgment’m talking about, were not particularly glorious. “Here, there was no justice,” he said, and complained about the “inhuman treatment” he had received in prison. “The United States is not better than any other corrupt country,” he lamented.
Drawing of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, during a statement before promulgation of his sentence
This, then, was the conclusion and climax of a myth that was created by the governments in the USA and Mexico and by the media in the world. The Story of the farmers from the mountains Sinaolas, could, in spite of his brilliant criminal mind, and inimitable charm hardly read or write, and still one of the richest men in the world. The David Copperfied of cocaine, the disappearance of a finger, the drugs flick of a place in the world, and as if by magic, somewhere else again appear could. All of this accomplice with the help of a handful of, as well as some high state officials such as the former President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto. This also includes the former high intelligence official, Genaro García Luna, in whose case incriminating witness statements from the Prosecutor’s office under lock and key to be kept belonged to.
Global Corruption System
From the beginning of a process of the competent US judge Brian Cogan vetoed the processing of the details of the corruption system of the Sinaloa cartel, both within and outside of Mexico. Not the Mexican government is sitting on the dock, argued Cogan on may 14. November in a closed hearing, from which I received a copy. It is just a question of the extent to which Guzmán Loera was the ten crimes, you put him to the load: the production and international distribution of drugs, money laundering, use of firearms, and much more.
DW-columnist Anabel Hernández
But how can you not want to explain the crimes of El Chapo, and their impact, if one talks about the corruption inside and outside of Mexico, which allowed him and many others like him, to export drugs from Mexico to the whole world? How do you explain that the cartel was able with impunity to earn millions of dollars for each ton of drugs, not to mention the legal system that allows it to wash this money for illegal transactions? How can you justify that the Sinaloa cartel continues to play a Central role in the global drug trade, even though El Chapo is locked up for two years in New York in a high-security prison?
After 14 years of Research on the history, structure and functioning of the Sinaloa cartel, I know that the backgrounds go much deeper and complex than the reductionist process against El Chapo would have us believe want to make.
According to the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a think tank that advises the US Department of defense, is responsible for the Sinaloa cartel to 80 percent of the land area of the globe: on the whole of the American continent, in countries such as the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany as well as in West Africa. In the big cities of India and China. And the Connections also extend to Australia and new Zealand.
The territorial presence of the cartel and the impressive height of the net revenue from the drug trade will require a different way of viewing.
Where disappear the revenue?
According to the accountant, whose testimony in the process remained completely unnoticed, buys the Sinaloa cartel in Colombia, Peru or Bolivia, a Kilo of cocaine for $ 2,500. Once the pounds arrives in Mexico, it has a market price of $ 15,000. With a quarter up to one-fifth of the value of Trade to the gross covered cost of the product, including transportation. The Rest is profit. Regardless of where in the world the kilogram is supplied, the cartel has a profit margin per Kilo of 300 to 400 percent.
The Numbers are even traveling more interesting, the more of this kilograms of drugs. In Los Angeles, the wholesale market price of 20,000, in Chicago, to 25,000, in New York, $ 35,000. In Italy, 55,000 in Australia 140.200 dollars. It is the money and not the criminal Talent of El Chapo, that this business does so on a global scale. Who can seriously believe that you can stop a business model, the profit margins generated, characterized by Guzmán Loera in prison? Where to stay because most of these profits? That is the question to answer would be the process against El Chapo, wanted to, but nobody answered.
Seized drugs in the Mexican state of Jalisco
The Numbers you have to put them in Relation with one of the best kept secrets of the Mexican government, How many homes, businesses, Bank accounts, how much the jewelry and cash of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, members of his family or related persons were seized in 2006, and in December 2018? At a time when, during the six years of the term of office of the President Calderón and Peña Nieto a “tough” and “relentless” war against the drugs trade prevailed?
I have requested the publication of this Information on the basis of the Mexican transparency law, the new left-wing government of President López Obrador. They denied this however and argues that it could jeopardise ongoing investigations or national security. Finally, I got a information. The answer is: Three watches, a plot of land, five firearms, 171 ink cartridges, five chargers, a Computer and three mobile phones. The ridiculous list and the meticulous Secrecy speak for themselves.
Just a pawn
The great game of the powers that be in the form of the annual trafficking tons of drugs into the United States and other parts of the world, goes on without Guzmán Loera. The true masters can make more. Joaquín Guzmán Loera is just a pawn in this game.
The one in New York against El Chapo Guzmán sentence will have in the public opinion a volatile effect, because it gives them a certain sense of justice. But it will have no deterrent effect on those who choose to want to be a cog in the vast machinery of the international drug trade, let alone the actual bosses and the beneficiaries of this system. El Chapo is not one of them. The main perpetrators are still in prison.
The journalist and author Anabel Hernández reports for many years about drugs cartels and corruption in Mexico. After massive threats of murder, they had to leave Mexico and has since lived in Europe. For your use, you received at the Global Media Forum of Deutsche Welle in Bonn and the DW Freedom of Speech Award in 2019.