Joaquín Guzmán, 61, could spend the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted following three-month New York trial
The notorious cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been found guilty of 10 counts of drug trafficking, at the end of a three-month New York trial that featured dramatic testimony of prison escapes, gruesome killings and million-dollar political payoffs.
Related: Behind the El Chapo trial: what's been left unsaid in a New York courtroom
Continue reading...Jury has surprised observers and unnerved prosecutors by asking for transcripts of ‘snitch’ witnesses
Whatever happens in the jury room in Brooklyn this Monday morning, people outside are starting to think the unthinkable: that Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán might get off.
It would be a reckless gambler that would bet on acquittal for the accused Mexican drug lord, but the odds shorten with each day of indecision. This is not the slam-dunk conviction prosecutors – and most of the rest of the world – were expecting.
Continue reading...Top Latin America adviser claims ‘there is not a single scenario’ in which Maduro and his ‘cronies’ are able to retain power
Donald Trump’s top Latin America adviser has claimed “there is not a single scenario” in which Nicolás Maduro and his “cronies” are able to retain power in Venezuela.
The revolt against Maduro’s regime is entering its fourth week, with the Venezuelan strongman showing no sign of relinquishing power despite a startling and largely unforeseen challenge from a previously obscure opposition leader called Juan Guaidó.
Continue reading...Flamengo president says it is ‘the worst tragedy to happen to the club in its 123 years’
Rio de Janeiro has declared three days of mourning as investigators seek to determine the cause of the fire that killed 10 teenage footballers at the training centre of the city’s Flamengo football club on Friday morning.
Cláudio Castro, the vice governor of Rio de Janeiro state, said authorities were looking at the possibility of a short circuit in an air conditioning unit.
Continue reading...David Ibbotson, who was flying light aircraft that crashed in Channel, has not been found
The family of the missing pilot of the plane carrying the footballer Emiliano Sala have set up a fundraising page for donations to restart a search for him.
Sala’s body was recovered and formally identified earlier this week but David Ibbotson, who was flying the light aircraft, has not been found.
Continue reading...Five hundred people told to leave area around Sul Superior tailings dam at mine near Belo Horizonte
Brazilian authorities have ordered the mining company Vale to evacuate hundreds of people from the vicinity of a dam in Minas Gerais, two weeks after a dam breach at another Vale mine in the state killed an estimated 300 people.
Vale said it was evacuating 500 people from three communities around the Sul Superior tailings dam at the Gongo Soco mine, near Belo Horizonte, on the orders of the national mining agency. It said it was a preventive measure after an engineering consulting firm, Walm, refused to give the dam a declaration of stability.
Continue reading...The eight men murdered by Bruce McArthur – many of south Asian or Middle Eastern heritage – all had lives, hopes and dreams
When Greg Dunn addressed a packed Toronto courtroom this week, his voice drew taut as he spoke of his close friend Andrew Kinsman, who was murdered by the serial killer Bruce McArthur.
“Fractures never heal as well as a break and they tend to bother you for the rest of your life,” Dunn said. “My life has been truly fractured. My heart, soul and spirit have been fractured. They may heal in time, but it will never be the same.”
Continue reading...Pressure grows on two-time Costa Rica president as former Observer journalist speaks out over alleged assault in 1990
Oscar Árias, the Nobel peace laureate and two-time president of Costa Rica, is facing mounting accusations of sexual misconduct after a criminal complaint alleging assault was filed against him.
Four women have now said they were assaulted by Árias. The complaint, filed by an unnamed activist, was followed by public allegations by Eleonora Antillon, a Costa Rican journalist, who said she too had been assaulted by Árias in the mid-80s, when she was working for his campaign.
Continue reading...The opposition leader behind Juan Guaidó’s rise has been under house arrest since 2017, but is an experienced schemer
Leopoldo López has been under house arrest since 2017, but he played a key role in Juan Guaidó’s sudden ascent from the political margin to Venezuela’s would-be president.
López claims to be distant relative of Simón Bolívar, the general who liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule in the 19th century. Like many members of the Venezuelan elite, he was educated in the United States, at a boarding school in New Jersey, and later at Harvard, where he attended the Kennedy school of government.
Continue reading...Campaigners raise concerns about ‘ad hoc reprieves’ as 29 offenders are deported
Last-minute legal interventions have led to a number of detainees being removed from a deportation flight to Jamaica, but the Home Office said 29 others were onboard the chartered plane.
More than 50 foreign national offenders who were being held in detention centres were reported to be due to be placed on the flight. But many of them were able to have their removal cancelled after their lawyers took action.
Continue reading...Opposition uses humanitarian shipment to test army’s loyalty but government sees it as prelude to military intervention
Venezuelan troops have barricaded a bridge on the country’s western border with Colombia in an apparent attempt to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid sent by opposition leaders trying to force Nicolás Maduro from power.
On Wednesday at lunchtime, a fuel tanker and two shipping containers blocked the Tienditas international bridge, which connects the two countries and has become a staging ground for the planned relief effort. Members of Venezuela’s Bolivarian national guard could also be seen at the bridge.
Continue reading...Fears and repairs preceded January collapse in which 134 people died and 199 are still missing, near Brumadinho in Minas Gerais state
The Brazilian mining dam which collapsed in January, killing hundreds of people, suffered a leak last year that compromised its safety, according to employees who allege the mine’s operators did not inform the workforce or relocate a canteen and administration building that were destroyed in the disaster.
One hundred and forty-two people died and 194 are still missing after the dam near Brumadinho in Minas Gerais state collapsed on 25 January.
Continue reading...Former president of Costa Rica denies claim from nuclear disarmament activist that he sexually assaulted her in 2014
Oscar Árias, the Costa Rican former president and Nobel peace prize laureate, has been enveloped in scandal after a sexual assault complaint was brought against him by a nuclear disarmament activist.
Árias denied the allegation, saying he has never acted against the will of any woman and has fought for gender equality during his career.
Continue reading...The latest troubling events in Venezuela are the most recent episode in a political crisis that has been festering since the death of Hugo Chávez six years ago. Following President Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration for a disputed second term in January, the speaker of the opposition-dominated parliament, Juan Guaidó, declared himself “interim president” of the country. Guaidó was immediately recognised by the US, Canada and a group of Latin American conservative governments, who called upon the Venezuelan military to rise up against Maduro. And today the UK, France, Spain, Germany and other European countries recognised Guaidó after Maduro refused their demand to call fresh elections.
Since Guaidó’s declaration, the Trump administration has imposed new sanctions on Maduro’s government, seized billions-worth of Venezuelan oil-related assets on US soil, and started making barely veiled threats of military intervention. Few would disagree that the country is in a disastrous economic and social situation, but before other governments take similar actions that could exacerbate Venezuela’s political polarisationand end up provoking a bloody civil war, we should first understand how it reached this state of crisis.
Continue reading...As the jury begins deliberations, we recap three months of amazing stories and allegations
Until his trial began, much of the public perception of accused Mexican drug lord El Chapo, real name Joaquín Guzmán, had come from rumours and legend. But over the past three months we have heard what the lead prosecutor, Andrea Goldbarg, called “a mountain of evidence” against the notorious leader of the Sinaloa cartel, including allegations of decades of murder, torture, bribery and corruption.
Related: Is Emma Coronel the devoted wife of El Chapo, or is she being used as a prop?
Continue reading...Summons to spare Joseph Nembhard, 37, who came to UK from Caribbean as teenager
A man who came to the UK from the Caribbean as a teenager is set to be granted an 11th-hour reprieve from being placed on a deportation flight to Jamaica.
About 50 people are thought to have been booked on to Wednesday’s secretive charter flight, the first to Jamaica since the Home Office suspended the flights last April the Windrush scandal.
Continue reading...Address comes after EU countries and US throw weight behind challenger Juan Guaidó
Nicolás Maduro has hit back at the “cowardly” and “disastrous” decision of a succession of European countries to recognise his rival, Juan Guaidó, as interim president, as Venezuela enters what many observers believe could be a critical week in its fast-escalating political crisis.
Addressing a military rally in the northern state of Aragua, Maduro said he was the target of a “gringo” plot to overthrow the Bolivarian revolution he had inherited from his political mentor, Hugo Chávez, after his death in 2013.
Continue reading...Embattled president signals he has no plans to go and asks if the US would like ‘a repeat of Vietnam’
Venezuela’s embattled leader, Nicolás Maduro, has warned Donald Trump he will leave the White House “stained with blood” if he insists on pursuing what he called a “dirty” imperialist conspiracy to overthrow him.
“Stop. Stop, Trump! Hold it right there! You are making mistakes that will leave your hands covered in blood and you will leave the presidency stained with blood,” Maduro warned during a combative interview with the Spanish journalist Jordi Évole. “Why would you want a repeat of Vietnam?”
Continue reading...UK among countries set to back Guaidó as interim president unless Nicolas Maduro calls election
The UK, France, Germany and other European countries are expected to recognise Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela on Monday if the current president, Nicolás Maduro, has not set a date for fresh elections by then.
EU leaders, including the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, started expressing their support for Guaidó before the midnight deadline Sunday night.
Continue reading...Call from Juan Guaidó comes after Beijing hints support may not be everlasting
Juan Guaidó, the opposition politician leading the push to topple Nicolás Maduro, has urged one of the Venezuelan president’s key international backers, China, to abandon him.
His remark comes after Beijing said it hoped to continue working with Caracas “no matter how the situation evolves”, suggesting China was now preparing for a future without Maduro.
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