El Chapo
Topic: Joaquin Guzman
Organization: Topical/chronological
Specific Purpose: I want to give a general overview of Joaquin Guzman’s criminal career, including his multiple escapes from federal prison.
I. Introduction
a. Attention Getter: Have any of you ever smoked weed? Done cocaine? If you answered yes, there is an almost 50% chance that it was smuggled across the border by the Sinaloa Cartel, which is controlled by one Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
b. Relevance: Guzman is the leader of one of the largest criminal organizations in the world, thus making him one of the most powerful men in the world.
c. Credibility Statement: The Mexican drug trade is always in the headlines here in Texas due to our proximity to the Mexican border.
d. Central
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Estimated annual revenue from U.S. drug trade is more than $3 billion, just short of Fortune 500 iii. Bribes at every level of the chain of command in government/military and law enforcement
1. Estimated $1 billion a year in bribes
Transition: Now that we know a little bit about the organization, let’s discuss the man who leads it, Joaquin Guzman.
b. Over the last 3 decades, he has become one of the most powerful men in the world
i. Known as “El Chapo” because his is short (only about 5’6”) ii. Joaquin Guzman was a lieutenant of the cartel when it first came to power, and took full control in the 1990s after the arrest of the preceding leader iii. Since taking over, he has smuggled more drugs and made more money than even Pablo Escobar (Forbes, 2012)
1. Made Forbes’ most powerful people in the world 2009-2011
2. 2nd richest man in Mexico behind Carlos Slim iv. The first underground tunnels used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican border into the US were built under his command
v. In 2012, the US Treasury Department named him the most powerful drug trafficking criminal in the world
Translation: Now that you have a better idea of just how powerful Guzman and his criminal enterprise are, it will be easier to believe how he escaped from maximum security prison
Recent arrests and the diminished opportunity to forward cocaine to U.S had left them with the necessity to embark in kidnappings, auto thefts, extortion, murders for hire, human smuggling, and other felonies not to mention that local demand for narcotics had increased recently. The Tijuana Cartel operations extents from the U.S Mexico border across Central America through the Pacific Route and receives support of one of most violent criminal organizations: Los
The arrest of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was a victorious circumstance for the Mexican government, who have been closing down on his presence for the recent past years. Mexican authorities began taking down high ranked members of the Sinaloa Cartel including two of Guzman’s main associates. On February 22, 2014, the world’s most wanted man had also been captured. Although the biggest drug lord has been captured, the crime and violence left behind cannot be forgotten.
...ation in a 10-vehicle convoy in July, sprayed it with hundreds of rounds of gunfire and then lobbed grenades at it. Rosas Perez survived.” This quote shows just how reckless and violent the cartel is. It also shows how they can have an affect on politics.
B. Background: The Sinaloa Cartel has become one of the most predominate suppliers of illegal narcotics in the entire world. The United States alone has provided the cartel with a huge amount of business The Human Rights Watch 2013 report of drug cartel income, "Mexican drug cartels take in between $19 and $29 billion annually from U.S.
For the 71 years that the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was in power, Mexico saw great political, social and economic upheaval. This can be seen in the evolution of the PRI party, whose reign over Mexican society came at the expense of true democracy. “A party designed for power, the PRI's mechanisms for success involved a combination of repressive measures. The party professed no specific ideology, enabling it to adapt to changing social, economic and political forces over time. It attached itself virtually all aspects of civil society, and in this way, it become the political extension and tool of the government.” In 2000, however, the PRI’s loss of its monopoly on political power and institutional corruption gave rise to inter-cartel violence that was created in the political void left after the PAN won the national presidential election. These conditions gave rise to the Zetas: a new type of cartel that changed the operational structure of previous drug cartels. The Zetas operate in a new militant structure associated with a higher brand of violence, which has led it to branch out beyond a traditional drug smuggling enterprise common under the PRI government. Simply put, the electoral defeat of the PRI in 2000 was supposed to usher in a more democratic era in Mexican politics. Instead, the PRI party’s defeat created a state of chaos that gave rise to inter-cartel violence and the birth of the Zetas cartel.
Mexico has a long history of cartels the deaths, drugs and weapon trafficking is in all time high increasing year by year. “Mexico's gangs have flourished since the late 19th century, mostly in the north due to their proximity to towns along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it was the American appetite for cocaine in the 1970s that gave Mexican drug cartels immense power to manufacture and transport drugs across the border. Early Mexican gangs were primarily situated in border towns where prostitution, drug use, bootlegging and extortion flourished” (Wagner). They keep themselves armed and ready with gun supplies shipped from the U.S, taking control of the drug trades. The violence is spilling so out of control that they overthrew the Mexican government.
Over the last several decades, violence has consumed and transformed Mexico. Since the rise of dozens of Mexican cartels, the Mexican government has constantly been fighting an ongoing war with these criminal organizations. The cartel organizations have a primary purpose of managing and controlling illegal drug trafficking operations in Central America and South America to the United States. Violence on a massive and brutal scale has emerged due to the nature of the illegal drug trade. Because the drug trade is vastly widespread, cartels are often fighting one another and competing in business. Mexican authorities count at least 12 major cartels, but also talk of an untold numbers of smaller splinter groups. (Taipei Times). Five cartels from Mexico have risen to become the extremely powerful amongst all the drug organizations operating in Mexico. The Guadalajara Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the Gulf Cartel. These organizations, along with other distinguished Mexican cartels, have plagued Mexico with violence, terror, and fear due to the essence and nature of illegal drug trafficking.
The Sinaloa Cartel was led by Joaquin Guzman who was a most-wanted Mexican drug trafficker worth a billion dollars. Under control of Joaquin, the Sinaloa Cartel became powerful and won the battle against the Juarez Cartel who was a former partner of the group. The battle, caused by want for more routes into the U.S. resulted in 12,000 deaths and led the group to employ gangs such as the Artist Assassins, Genre Nueva, and Los Mexicles to fight against the Juarez Cartel. The second half of the Guadalajara Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel was started in the 1990s and by the early 2000s became one of the “biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico,” as stated by the article, “The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels”.
Born as Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, Mr. Guzman soon became known as the infamous “El Chapo Guzmán” due to his height of five feet and six inches. With very little information regarding a birth date, he was questionably born on December 25th 1954, or April 4th 1957. Joaquín was born into a poor family located in a rural community known as La tuna de Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico. However, many generations of his family lived and died in La Tuna. It is recognized that his father was a cattle rancher, but some sources argue that he may have also been a gomero, which is a Sinaloan word for an opium poppy farmer.
Around the time of 1978, a business was developing that would soon be wealthy enough to profit up to 60 million a month (Kelley). Despite its wealth, the Medellin Cartel was not exactly a legal enterprise. It devoted infinite amounts of time, money, and manpower to produce, sell, and distribute drugs throughout vast areas. At the head was Pablo Escobar, who was admired by many inside and outside of the cartel. Countless people were involved in his business, both voluntarily and involuntarily (Kelley). While countless people looked up to him as a hero, Pablo Escobar took vicious measures while running his business, due to his thirst for power and wealth; however, he did not receive a satisfying punishment for the crimes he committed.
“Mexican smugglers have long trafficked homegrown heroin and marijuana to the U.S. But in the 1980’s, Mexico also became the primary route for Colombian cocaine bound for the U.S” (Bates). According to Bates, when Guadalajara’s leader was arrested in 1989, the groups remaining capos, including a young Guzman, divided up its trafficking routes, creating the Sinaloa, Juarez, and Tijuana Cartels. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, age 56, is responsible for half the illegal narcotics that are imported into the U.S. each year. “El Chapo” meaning shorty, is believed to be the world’s most powerful drug lord.
Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bDEDBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA196&dq=mexican+drug+cartels&ots=8goVXKwGf_&sig=UkmUGWh_lIrl9krS6hWNRCtzjoQ#v=onepage&q=mexican%20drug%20cartels&f=false "Drug Trade and Trafficking." Teen Health and Wellness, Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. June 2015. Accessed March 21, 2018. http://teenhealthandwellness.com/article/134/drug-trade-and-trafficking.
Retrieved from http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-current-state-of-mexicos-manydrug- cartels Logan, Samuel.
Drug trafficking has been a massive concern between the borders of Mexico and the U.S. “since mid 1970s” (Wyler, 1). Drug trafficking is “knowingly being in possession, manufacturing, selling, purchasing, or delivering an illegal, controlled substance” (LaMance, 1). A dynamic relationship exists amongst Columbia, Mexico, and the U.S. the informal drug trafficking economy. This growing informal drug economy leads to many individuals creating a substantial living through this undercover market. These individual drug cartels monopolizing the trafficking market are a growing problem for the U.S economy and need to be located and controlled. If this trafficking continues, the U.S. informal economy will crush the growth of legal industries. The trafficking and abuse of drugs in the U.S. affects nearly all aspects of consumer life. Drug trafficking remains a growing issue and concern to the U.S. government. The U.S. border control must find a way to work with Mexico to overpower the individuals who contribute to the drug trafficking business. This market must be seized and these individuals must be stopped.
Pablo Escobar was one of the most notorious and richest criminals of the last century; his humble upbringing provided him with all of the necessary resources to create a massive and lasting empire. His cocaine empire started small, but quickly spread, making him famous worldwide. Escobar worked hard to carefully plan and outsmart his opponents and authorities to escape extradition to the United States.