Secrecy has come to define El Chapo's trial. From the onset, the prosecution has tried to ensure that witness testimony related to allegations of government corruption is suppressed from the jury.
In his opening statement, one of El Chapo's lawyers, Jeffrey Lichtman, accused two former Mexican presidents, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto, of taking "hundreds of millions in bribes" from the Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia, who Lichtman said "bribes the entire government of Mexico, up to the top."
However, according to the New York Times reporter Alan Feuer, Judge Brian Cogan later limited the questions that El Chapo's lawyers could ask Jesus "El Rey" Zambada Garcia — El Mayo's brother — about the allegations of corruption within the Mexican government. Cogan argued that the information obtained would not outweigh "protecting individuals" who weren't a part of the case and "would suffer embarrassment" as a result.
Prosecutors have also filed a request that the defense not be allowed to question Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla, a former high-ranking capo and the son of El Mayo. In 2011, Zambada Niebla told authorities that the cartel had a deal in place with the US Drug Enforcement Administration in which agents would notify El Chapo's former lawyer of Mexican security operations that could "endanger the cartel's leaders."
The prosecution is also working to prevent the jury from hearing anything about the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' failed "Operation Fast and Furious."
It was designed to bust firearms smugglers and straw purchasers, but US firearms were instead sent to Mexican criminal groups — including the Sinaloa cartel — and later linked to the killing of a US Border Patrol agent in 2010 and a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in 2011.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario