Fate of Mexican drug lord El Chapo now rests with US jury
NEW YORK — After nearly three months of testimony about a vast drug-smuggling conspiracy steeped in violence, a jury began deliberations Monday at the U.S. trial of the infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The day ended without jurors reaching a verdict for Guzman, who faces life in prison if convicted. They were to resume deliberations Tuesday morning.
The jury has heard months of testimony about Guzman’s rise to power as the head of the Sinaloa cartel. Prosecutors say he is responsible for smuggling at least 200 tons of cocaine into the United States and for a wave of killings in turf wars with other cartels.
Guzman, 61, is notorious for escaping from prison twice in Mexico. In closing arguments, prosecutor Andrea Goldbarg said he was plotting yet another breakout when was he was sent in 2017 to the U.S., where he has been in solitary confinement ever since.
The defendant wanted to escape “because he is guilty and he never wanted to be in a position where he would have to answer for his crimes,” Goldbarg told the jury. “He wanted to avoid sitting right there. In front of you.”
Plane breaks apart over California neighborhood, 5 killed
YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Dave Elfver was getting ready to go to a friend’s house to watch the Super Bowl when he heard a whining sound in his Southern California neighborhood “like a motorcycle going a hundred miles per hour.”
Then, he said, came the explosion from a twin-engine propeller-driven Cessna 414A that broke apart in flight and crashed, setting a home on fire in the Los Angeles suburb of Yorba Linda, killing five people.
“The whole house shook. I thought it was an earthquake, but the whining sound didn’t make any sense.”
Antonio Pastini, 75, of Gardnerville, Nev., was the only person aboard, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Cory Martino.
Authorities were trying to identify the people who died in the house, describing them only as two males and two females. Martino said DNA might be required because of the condition of the bodies.
Two other people were hospitalized with moderate injuries, he said.
EU nations endorse Venezuela opposition leader over Maduro
CARACAS, Venezuela — More than a dozen European Union countries endorsed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president on Monday, piling the pressure on embattled President Nicolas Maduro to resign and clear the way for a new presidential election.
Maduro, for his part, stood defiant, rejecting a U.S offer of humanitarian aid that has shifted attention to Venezuela’s western border with Colombia, where opponents were gearing up to try to bring emergency food and medicine into the country.
“We are not beggars,” Maduro said in a speech to troops broadcast on Venezuelan state TV.
Spain, Germany, France and Britain delivered diplomatic blows to Maduro’s rule by publicly supporting Guaido after a Sunday deadline for Maduro to call a presidential election passed without action. Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal also lined up behind Guaido, who last month declared himself interim president with the support of the United States and many South American nations.
Meanwhile, in Canada, foreign ministers from Western hemisphere nations belonging to the Lima Group, which includes 13 countries that took the lead in recognizing Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader, gathered in Ottawa to discuss additional steps to pressure Maduro.
6 French women on trial for alleging lawmaker harassed them
PARIS — Six French women stood trial Monday in a defamation lawsuit brought by a former lawmaker they accused of sexual misconduct 1½ years before the #MeToo movement.
Four journalists who published allegations from the women and eight others in May 2016 also are defendants in the case filed by Denis Baupin, who resigned his leadership post in parliament’s lower house when the media reports came out.
Baupin’s lawyer, Emmanuel Pierrat, said his client was the victim of “media lynching” and expects his “innocence” will be “totally proved” during the four-day trial in Paris.
The defendants said they regard the proceedings as a test of French women’s ability to speak out when they think powerful men sexually harassed or abused them.
The lawsuit arose from reports by investigative website Mediapart and radio station France Inter based on accounts from 14 women who alleged he had groped, sexted and otherwise harassed them. The alleged harassment took place from 1998 to 2013.
