When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
CLARIN

Why Forbes Magazine Is Awed By A Mexican Drug Kingpin

Among only five Latin Americans on Forbes Magazine's presitigious annual index of the most powerful is El Chapo, a legendary Mexican drug kingpin poisoning the entire region.

One of the few pictures of "El Chapo"
One of the few pictures of "El Chapo"
Marcelo A. Moreno

BUENOS AIRES — He is 56 years old and stands at just 5-foot-6, with a fortune estimated at $1.5 billion. He’s a family man of sorts — having married three times and sired nine children — who, like most Mexican Catholics, is devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

His name is Joaquin "Shorty” Guzmán, though he's known more commonly as El Chapo, and he is a legendary global drug trafficker. This son of a poor peasant father who beat him regularly, El Chapo is, according to Mexican and U.S. authorities, responsible for 1,500 deaths. He is also one of five Latin Americans on Forbes magazine’s exclusive list of the World’s Most Powerful People.

The Latin American best positioned on that list is Pope Francis, the only Argentine there, who is No. 4, after Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama and Xi Jinping, the current leader of China. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is No. 20, while three Mexicans complete Latin America’s presence: multimillionaire Carlos Slim and his family (No. 12), President Enrique Peña Nieto (No. 37), and finally, Guzmán (No. 67).

Guzmán has the honor of featuring among the world’s top leaders, financiers and captains of industry by virtue of leading the Sinaloa Cartel — a decidedly non-philanthropic organization Forbes says imports 25% of all the drugs entering the United States. That has made him, since the death of Osama bin Laden, the man most wanted by U.S. security agencies, which are offering a $7 million reward for his capture.

The cartel’s sophisticated work consists of moving drugs from production centers in South America to the United States, after crossing Central America and the 17 Mexican states in which it operates. Not that it is all a bed of roses for Guzmán and his associates: He has allied organizations but also powerful competitors and enemies such as the Zetas Cartel. Differences between them are resolved not with verbal courtesies, but with machine guns and beheadings, among a range of other imaginative and less-than-delicate methods.

In the crossfire

Some youthful residents of the impoverished Villa La Cárcova sector of José León Suárez, north of Buenos Aires, recently burned and smashed part of the local police station. They broke all the windows, ripped out doors and painted slogans on the walls that could hardly be described as praising the police and their work. They also set fire to a police vehicle, 10 private cars and 90 motorbikes being stored in a shed. The forces of law and order, meanwhile, remained holed up in the building, waiting for the arrival of Buenos Aires provincial police, who finally dispersed the protesters.

It was the murder of a 13-year-old boy that incited this anger. Police said he had been caught in the middle of a fight between drug gangs, but his father said a drug dealer had fired shots in a place “full of traffickers” amid police who did nothing. The rioters chanted, “The traffickers are all with the police.”

After this explosion of public rage, reports emerged that three other boys had died this year in the drug war, all near Villa La Cárcova, and there were suspicions that traffickers had even set up a settlement right next door, called Ciudad de Dios.

Of course, none of this is exceptional in a country where traffickers once riddled a governor’s house with bullets, an incident in which senior policemen were detained on suspicion of conniving with the criminals.

As revealed in a recent UN Office on Drugs and Crime report, Argentina is Latin America’s top cocaine consumer, and No. 2 globally, behind the United States. In fact, the Sinaloa Cartel has been able to expand its operations to new zones such as Central and South America — as far as Peru, Paraguay and Argentina.

Argentina lacks a comprehensive national plan to fight drugs, either in a preventive or punitive capacity. And the state anti-drug agency SEDRONAR has been without a head since March. This notable inaction represents not only the Argentine government’s prolonged negligence but also collusion with El Chapo, his friends and competitors.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

eyes on the U.S.

Murdoch Resignation Adds To Biden's Good Luck With The Media — A Repeat Of FDR?

Robert Murdoch's resignation from Fox News Corp. so soon before the next U.S. presidential elections begs the question of how directly media coverage has impacted Joe Biden as a figure, and what this new shift in power will mean for the current President.

Close up photograph of a opy of The Independent features Rupert Murdoch striking a pensive countenance as his 'News of the World' tabloid newspaper announced its last edition will run

July 7, 2011 - London, England: A copy of The Independent features Rupert Murdoch striking a pensive countenance as his 'News of the World' tabloid newspaper announced its last edition will run July 11, 2011 amid a torrid scandal involving phone hacking.

Mark Makela/ZUMA
Michael J. Socolow

Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States of America on Jan. 20, 2021.

Imagine if someone could go back in time and inform him and his communications team that a few pivotal changes in the media would occur during his first three years in office.

There’s the latest news that Rubert Murdoch, 92, stepped down as the chairperson of Fox Corp. and News Corp. on Sept. 21, 2023. Since the 1980s, Murdoch, who will be replaced by his son Lachlan, has been the most powerful right-wing media executivein the U.S.

While it’s not clear whether Fox will be any tamer under Lachlan, Murdoch’s departure is likely good news for Biden, who reportedly despises the media baron.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest