Central de Abasto, Mexico City’s wholesale market, is a city unto itself

July 17, 2019

Turns out the banana varieties go quite deep at the Central de Abasto.

The biggest market in Mexico City provides an estimated 80% of its food and it can be an overwhelming but exciting experience to watch the market’s controlled chaos.

Entering through 10-peso toll gates, the market finally comes to an end at a parking lot between the two main buildings — nearly a kilometer away.

It’s a miracle anyone can exit the parking lot with cars parked tightly at oblique angles.

Central de Abasto is open 24/7 and specializes in fruits, vegetables and packaged goods by the tonne, but also dispenses to smaller markets and individual retail clients.

The north building offers abarrotes (packaged goods); the south, mostly fruits and vegetables. A veritable highway of traffic moves between them, leading to giant stacked parking garages and loading docks that run through the interior rows of the market.

Cart sellers, market vendors and restaurateurs load their purchases into beat-up VW buses, tiny two-door hatchbacks and huge cargo vans — bags of potatoes and limes, plastic-wrapped crates of mayonnaise; loads of giant Corona cups, chamoy mixes and the colorful powders used to make psychedelic micheladas.

Central de Abasto opened in Colonia Iztapalapa in 1982 to alleviate stress on La Merced, the previous wholesale market, that had grown into neighboring streets, creating heavy congestion through the center of the city.

The new market houses over 2,000 businesses covering a whopping 328 hectares.

The main building runs 2,250 meters along its five passageways, with eight minor rows (lettered “I” through “X”) running about two-thirds of that distance from east to west. The hand carts, shopping carts and pallet jacks zoom through intersections with the carretilleros (hand-cart drivers) generally receiving the right of way.

It’s an underground city unto itself with bank branches, cell phone shops, Oxxos and gambling parlors — a city that comes up for air every couple of blocks where the passageways rise in concrete hills to overlook the loading docks. Carretilleros sprint hard up each hill, moving hundreds of kilos at a time, and stop for a breath before going down the other side, fighting the pull of gravity.

Central de Abasto moves around 30,000 tonnes of food a day. The major passageways teem with hand carts flying past.

At the top of each concrete hill, truckers look out onto the docks to see if their trailers might be loaded and ready, or if there’s still time to kill. Staff spend such a huge part of their lives in the market that there are plenty of distractions and amenities to fill the time — showers, video game parlors, liquor stores and gift shops.

A cartillero slowing a massive downhill load at Central de Abasto. — A *carretillero* slows a massive downhill load at Central de Abasto.

Electronics stores push showy LEDs and the perfect stereo to help truckers make it through the long hauls. Carts sell flashy reflective decals to boast of one’s special interests, be they sports teams, naked ladies or Christ bleeding through his crown of thorns.

Women walk by with trays on their heads loaded with plates to deliver hot food throughout the market or return with stacked empties. Rows of cart drivers wait for a gig, chatting with friends, playing games on their phones or straight up napping on their feet, leaning against their carts.

Cops roll slowly along on golf carts looking for troublemakers — two seated in front and one holding a handrail in back, ready to tackle-dive a runner. And all the while, the carretilleros blast along, loudly whistling to let everyone ahead know to “get outta the way.” You need a good whistle to handle a cart at Central de Abasto.

Despite the chaos, the lanes are wide. It’s actually a pleasant experience to wander with a camera around your neck, looking like a tourist. No one bothers you hollering to make a sale. They know you’re not planning to fill a truck with tomatoes.

In the high-lettered rows of the main building, the chaos subsides and the air cools. It’s early afternoon and a potato salesman — two happy cats napping behind him — tells me it doesn’t get busy through here until around midnight. He distributes mostly to sellers at smaller markets or grocery stores, and there’s no point for them to fight the traffic.

In Row WX, bananas hang on hooks in double bunches, as if still growing. The hung fruit is moved to scales for weighing. Boxes, crates and bunches of bananas — most of them running from green to yellow in ripeness — are stacked everywhere. Some are tiny, plantains, of course. Others are purple — actually red bananas.

The smell is nice, if banana is your thing. It’s like being sealed in a plastic bag with them or hiking through the jungle, hacking them down with a machete.

The workers stack crates or stand ready for service, while the boss man sits at a desk, notepad in hand, usually smoking. He looks ready to chew someone out. Behind each floor display is a modest warehouse with more and more crates and pallets that leads to the open-air loading dock behind.

I ask a smiling, mustachioed banana employee, what sets his product apart.

“They’re from Chiapas,” he says in a charming, soft-spoken voice. His name is Fortunato Ornelas and he’s been at Central de Abasto for 30 years. “A lot of them here are from Tabasco,” he continues. “Bananas from Chiapas are sweeter. They’re the ones with the pointy tips.”

Two kids cruise by on a pallet jack, riding it like a giant steel stand-up go-kart. There are skateboards and scooters. It’s the kind of massive space that begs for transportation. A fat guy passes riding a motorcycle, taking up most of the passage, moving so slowly it seems as if he might topple over.

At the loading docks, dump trucks full of oranges sit parked with their front wheels up on metal ramps. A worker shovels out the oranges while another sorts and guides them onto chutes leading into the bowels of the market where they’ll later be moved to distribution centers.

The massive amounts of organic trash fill dozens of dumpsters a day.

The surrounding runway is a mess of smashed watermelons, overripe oranges and errant piles of soybeans. It’s like the aftermath of an epic food fight. Men shovel dead produce into truck- bed dumpsters, while ladies sort through piles of vegetal “trash,” looking for something that’s still edible.

Hand-painted murals above the warehouses show each business’s personality: smiling bananas play football with kids; mangos and apples dutifully fill warehouse carts; an orange maniacally peels off its own skin; and a bloodthirsty buccaneer carries a bunch of bananas over his back like a fresh kill.

Back along Pasillo 3, the main artery running to the crazed retail end of the market, three dogs meander, calmly searching for a snack. Curtains cover a video gambling parlor, presumably so you can’t see who’s slacking off. People wolf down tortas, the meal of choice at Central de Abasto — serious fuel for a long day (or night) of work. And the carretilleros never tire, hoofing into nearly thankless oblivion.

The market does have its problems. The amount of trash created is astounding, and surrounding neighborhoods complain of dumpster-sized piles appearing on their streets overnight. There’s petty theft and drug sales, as well as the constant threat of merchant kidnapping or theft by organized crime, not to mention underage prostitution because of the demand the market creates.

I politely ask a patrolling policeman if he might be willing to chat with me on the subject, expecting a firm rejection. But he’s come prepared to talk, ready to dive into a full-on diatribe about the status of cops and their general relationship with the market.

“I’m here to watch over everything,” he tells me. “Some people are like, ‘Hey, poli — what are you doing?’’ he says in a mocking voice. “‘Hey poli — what do you want?’ I make my rounds and keep an eye on things. I’m here to keep people out of danger.”

“A lot of people don’t like police,” he continues. “But what would happen in society if there weren’t police?”

“This place is my second home,” he says. “I watch over it.”

In a vast, faceless city like Central de Abasto, sometimes the only pat on the back you’re likely to get is from your own hand.

• Central de Abasto is located on Canal Río Churubusco with its own Federal Zone in Izstapalapa, Mexico City, and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

This is the 18th in a series on the bazaars, flea markets and markets of Mexico City:

Black Saturdays at the Punk Market: Tianguis Cultural del Chopo
At this market are Mexico City’s best murals, which almost no one visits
Mexico City’s Mercado Medellín, Colonia Roma’s best old-school market
This mega thrift market said to be the biggest street market in Latin America
How to find your way through the massive Mercado de la Merced
From knick-knacks to treasure maps at Portales Antiques Flea Market
Mercado Martínez de la Torre one of the best food markets in Mexico City
Choose your adventure of history, gastronomy or art at Saturday Bazaar
Collected artistic traditions of Mexico are under one roof at this city market
Sharpen your bargaining skills at the best little antiques market
Mexico City’s most colorful market is Mercado Jamaica, the flower market
You’ll find art at Mercado Coyoacán, but the main attraction is food
MercadoRoma, a Mexican public market reimagined for the 21st century
Tuesdays in Taxqueña, the flea market of musical brotherhood
Escandón Market is quintessential middle-class CDMX neighborhood market
A walk through the Mexico City markets of Colonia La Condesa
The San Juan market, Mexico City’s epicenter for culinary inquisition

Farmers block highways to protest cuts in financial aid

MND Staff

July 17, 2019

Highway blockade in San Luis Potosí was one of dozens on Wednesday.

Thousands of farmers erected blockades at 42 locations in 14 states today to demand that the government release additional funds to support the agricultural sector.

Protests started just after 8:00am on roads in the states of México, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Morelos, Jalisco, Nayarit, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, Chihuahua and Campeche.

Among the roads blocked were the federal highway between Oaxaca and Puebla, the Mexico City-Querétaro highway at kilometer 122, the Tres Marías toll both in Morelos, the La Tinaja-Acayucan highway in Veracruz and the Ciudad Victoria-Matamoros highway in Tamaulipas.

Access to the Oaxaca city airport was also blocked.

Farmers are angry that agriculture and rural funding was cut by 20% in the government’s 2019 budget. Some are also demanding the delivery of free fertilizer and other aid they were promised.

President López Obrador this morning recommended farmers not waste their time because the government won’t be pressured into ceding to their demands.

“. . . We’re not going to give in at all, none of this ‘we’ll take a highway and reach an agreement as long as you give us so many tonnes of fertilizer.’ Save your time, that’s not accepted anymore,” he said.

The president added that farmers who are protesting for a valid reason will be attended to but for those who are seeking to benefit unfairly or steal, “the corruption is over.”

López Obrador also said that the representatives of some agricultural organizations are upset because the government is distributing aid directly to farmers.

But he declared that the days of union leaders taking a cut of government aid for themselves is over, reiterating “support is now direct to the producer.”

Source: Reforma (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Finding forgotten cell phone reveals the writer’s San Miguel

Bill Holder

July 17, 2019

tais — In which taxi was the forgotten phone?

What do you do when you leave your cell phone in a taxi? Easy: scream!

Of course you made a point of remembering the taxi number. (Us older folks always jot the number down on the back of our hand between the liver spots. Not.)

This shouldn’t be hard — just look for that green car that says taxi. In your dreams! There are 400 of the beasts in San Miguel de Allende. To complicate matters this is Mexico. I’ll leave it at that.

On some level I realized I have a co-dependent relationship with my phone. The first recognition of its loss left me with sweaty palms and a rapid heartbeat. There was true fear.

I have been so cynical of the younger members of our family and their addiction to those devices and now here I am suffering withdrawal symptoms. How can this be? I’m too old, too smart, to aware for this to be happening but it is. If I was a drinker it would be a good excuse for a scotch.

Our workers stepped in to help with some very good suggestions. A cynical call for prayer, call the taxi companies and ask them to put it out on their radio network, put up posters at the taxi stands and as a last resort have the local AM radio station announce it with a reward.

I jumped into the first option with less cynicism than they would have thought and then went through the motions for the others. We waited. And waited.

Being the optimistic sort I asked where does one go to buy an unlocked phone in San Miguel? There are a surprising number of places, the two most interesting were slipped to me by a guy at the taco stand with the instructions to go there tomorrow. They buy “liberated merchandise” and yours might be there by then. So we waited some more.

At about 6:00 my electrician’s phone rang. A taxista had heard the announcement on the radio station and wanted to return my phone. Yes, for real. We met up, he gave me my lovely phone and I offered him the 500-peso reward but he refused, only wanting the 50-peso fare for making the trip to drop it off.

As we parted he was very apologetic for taking so long. He was with a fare 70 miles away when he heard the announcement. We parted with me gushing thanks.

This is the San Miguel de Allende I live in.

Bill Holder shared this piece thinking it was time for some positive news from San Miguel.

The nature of art and intellectual property is both sticky and slippery

Sarah DeVries

July 17, 2019

The chair that Mexican culture officials believe uses indigenous designs from Mexico.

I’ve never been particularly fashionable. I tend to wear the same “uniform” every day: jeans with a short sleeve shirt and sandals if it’s warm, the same with a sweater on top and boots if it’s cold.

The colors are usually demure with lots of dark teals, navies and purples, and if anything about my outfit stands out it’s usually a three-seasons-too-late scarf or purse. It’s important to me that my clothes fit well, but beyond that I’ve never had the economic status or the wherewithal to seek out specific brands or chase after the latest trends.

You won’t catch me in Crocs — I have standards, after all — but for the most part, the fashion industry feels like a different world to me. While I won’t say that brilliant advertising doesn’t affect me, it falls fairly low on the list of things that occupy my mind.

All that said, I felt a tinge of guilt when I read the article about Louis Vuitton selling Otomí-print upholstered chairs for US $18,000. While fashion isn’t normally on my radar, interior design is, and I pride myself on my ability to “steal looks” on the cheap with the fervor of tweens practicing the makeup techniques of their favorite celebrities from YouTube tutorials.

Beautiful design and practical, pretty organization are passions of mine, and my favorite look is what you might call “folkloric chic:” bright and bold colors, natural-colored wood, lots of plants and quirky figurines and absolutely no, under any circumstances, “daylight” lightbulbs (trust me, people, just stay away from them: they make everything look grey and depressing).

In my backyard, I’ve painted several giant murals on the available wall space, which is an excellent way to get a dramatic change when you have a low decorating budget (give me unlimited paint, baskets and custom shelves, and I’ll redo your whole house!). Some were free-handed, but the biggest and prettiest ones were saved from Pinterest and then projected and traced on the walls.

I feel self-conscious enough about having “stolen” the work that I quickly tell people where it’s from and how I did it when they comment on it, but since I’m not selling it, I suppose there’s no real reason to make a point of it not being “mine.”

I’ve entertained the fantasy of making a business of painting murals, but as my own artistic creativity and talent hit a wall when it comes to the actual drawing of patterns and designs, I’ve hesitated: the ethics of charging people for copying others’ designs on to their walls just does not meet my standards of integrity. It feels like a dishonest way to make money.

The nature of art and intellectual property is both sticky and slippery. What’s the difference between copying something and simply being inspired by it? I know that I copied two of the murals that are on my wall, because I traced them exactly from a projection. The Quetzalcoatl I free-handed on another part was inspired by several images I found online (before you get too impressed about that one, keep in mind that several people have mistakenly called it a “Chinese dragon”).

Should original artists and creators be flattered that their work is admired and deemed worthy of mass production, or irritated that it’s being copied and then sold? If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, how should indigenous artists feel about their designs being used by others to make more money than they could even dream of?

My guess is they feel about as impressed as you or I would if we sold an original creation — one whose design and techniques had been passed down for generations, no less — and then saw virtually the same thing mass-produced and sold at a marked-up price by someone who had the means to put the needed infrastructure in place for a sophisticated global market.

Alejandro Frausto, Mexico’s culture secretary, did the right thing by writing to Louis Vuitton to defend the rights of the people who create the authentic designs that were used, and asking for concrete ways for them to be both credited and compensated.

As of this writing, the company responded saying they were looking to collaborate with the artisans of Tenango de Voria in Hidalgo where such designs originate, although they did not list the specific ways they would do so. For such a large and wealthy company, surely they could spare the funds to make a point of practicing fairness and goodwill, though I wonder if they worry about the “slippery slope” of giving credit, intellectually and monetarily.

Much like public indecency laws, what exactly constitutes copying is subject to all kinds of interpretation, and surely they’re wary of setting precedents that will be hard to back out of later. This is the route Carolina Herrera seemed to take when she claimed that the criticized Mexican-patterned clothing she sold was simply “inspired” by Mexico.

As a friend who works in the fashion industry here told me, appropriation in fashion might not be ethical, but it is (apparently) perfectly legal. In my somewhat unrefined view of the philosophy of art, I certainly think there is something to be said about inspiration — art isn’t created in a vacuum. It sure does get ethically ambiguous, though, when money for other versions of it comes into the equation.

In the case of the Louis Vuitton chair, the Otomí pattern is very clearly copied in style and color, not simply “inspired.” For most of us it’s a moot point anyway, as I don’t imagine many people have 18k sitting around to spend on a chair.

The work is beautiful, and I have several pieces in my own home, bought from artisans in places I’ve visited. I dream of lampshades and blankets of the same designs, and mentally set aside money for their future purchase.

I’ve seen cheap Chinese-made printed versions on Amazon, but have resisted the urge to get the “look” without paying the artists who created it. Let’s all resist that urge, shall we?

Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Ex-finance officials stole 190 million pesos in a theft they called ‘easy’

MND Staff

July 17, 2019

The three ex-bureaucrats arrested for embezzlement.

Three former Mexico City finance officials were arrested this week for hacking into the finance department’s bank accounts and stealing 190 million pesos (US $10 million).

In June 2018, Berenice Guerrero Hernández, a former financial planning undersecretary, ex-funds and assets director José Iván Morales Palafox and former general director of financial administration Gabriel Rincón Hernández transferred the funds from two Secretariat of Finance accounts to a shell company.

After their arrest on Monday, the three reportedly said the embezzlement was “easy” and that they didn’t believe they would be caught because the finance department was in a state of “disaster” at the time.

The theft occurred just before last year’s elections and about six months before the new government took office.

The officials also said they were paid “miserable” salaries, the newspaper El Universal reported.

The embezzled funds were earmarked to pay the salaries of employees of other Mexico City secretariats, and close to 10,000 workers were affected.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday that the comptroller’s office has identified irregularities in virtually all of the capital’s secretariats since she took office last December.

Some warrant administrative sanctions while others are criminal offenses, she said.

The finance department embezzlement case was referred to the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office, which launched an investigation that led to this week’s arrests.

Sheinbaum, a political ally of President López Obrador and member of his Morena party, said her administration’s aim is to eradicate corruption in all government departments.

Source: El Universal (sp)

International partnership supports training of English teachers in Baja

Madison Koen

July 17, 2019

Baja California English teachers at an IAPE workshop.

Educational institutions in the United States have partnered with the state of Baja California in a project whose goal is to raise the standard of English-language education.

The Inter-American Partnership for Education (IAPE) will team up with the University of California San Diego and the Baja California Education Secretariat to train public school teachers through a method initially designed for the U.S. Peace Corps.

The initiative will introduce a seal of biliteracy that will be awarded to graduating students in recognition of a high level of English-language ability.

The IAPE, a partnership between the Rassias Center for World Languages and Cultures at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Educando by Worldfund, has operated English-language education programs in Mexico since 2007.

The IAPE was selected to implement the teacher training, which began in December with 32 Baja California middle school teachers.

The partnership seeks to support 340 teachers during the next two years and award the biliteracy seal to 85,000 students. IAPE director Jim Citron said that English-language ability is important in Baja California.

“Baja California is located directly south of the California border and over 50,000 out of the state’s 700,000 students in public elementary and middle schools were born in the U.S. By providing tools for English teachers to include and empower English-speaking students as leaders in the classroom, the project is building bridges across cultures and providing opportunities for advancement for all students.”

According to project organizers, Mexican professionals with English-language skills earn on average 28% to 50% more.

The partnership aims to address the findings of a 2015 study by the education advocacy organization Mexicanos Primero that 97% of middle school students do not achieve the English proficiency level established by the Secretariat of Public Education by the time they graduate.

Mexico News Daily

Another arrest warrant issued for former Pemex CEO

MND Staff

July 17, 2019

The Ixtapa house owned by Lozoya's wife.

A judge has issued another warrant for the arrest of former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya on corruption charges.

The warrant orders Lozoya’s detention on charges of conducting operations with resources of illicit origin, criminal association and bribery.

The accusations relate to the purchase of a home in Ixtapa, Guerrero, which is registered in the name of Lozoya’s wife and was seized by the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) on July 7. It has been valued at US $1.9 million.

The warrant was issued by a Mexico City judge on July 4 but its details weren’t made public until yesterday.

The first warrant for Lozoya’s arrest was issued in late May in connection with the 2014 sale of a fertilizer plant to Pemex by steelmaker Altos Hornos de México.

Ex-Pemex chief Lozoya and his wife, Marielle Helene Eckes.

The warrant was suspended in early June but reinstated two weeks later.

The FGR announced earlier this month that it also obtained a warrant for the former Pemex chief’s arrest in connection with bribes he allegedly received from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which has been at the center of corruption scandals in several Latin American countries.

Lawyer Javier Coello Trejo told the state news agency Notimex that the Odebrecht arrest warrant also names his client’s wife, mother and sister, joking that authorities only forgot Lozoya’s dog and parakeet.

The Ixtapa home owned by Marielle Helene Eckes was allegedly purchased with funds provided by Altos Hornos de México owner and president Alonso Ancira, who was arrested in Mallorca, Spain, in May.

According to the government, the US $475 million Pemex paid to Ancira’s company for the fertilizer plant was more than nine times its real value.

Coello Trejo said in June that Lozoya is in Mexico City, but warned that he will not be arrested because authorities will not be able to find him.

Yesterday, he said that his client is not concerned about the warrants against him because he knows that he can prove his innocence.

However, the former Pemex chief, who managed the oil company between 2012 and 2016, is annoyed that his mother has been targeted, Coello added.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Notimex (sp)

35 tonnes of sargassum arrives on popular Cancún beach

Madison Koen

July 17, 2019

The scourge that has mired much of the coast of Quintana Roo with smelly brown algae has now affected Playa Delfines, burying one of Cancún’s most popular beaches under 35 tonnes of sargassum in just one day.

Mayor Mara Lezama called Tuesday’s seaweed arrival “unprecedented” and said that more than 100 federal and municipal workers were involved in clean-up efforts to remove the weed. They are being supported by nearly an equal number of volunteers.

The two-kilometer stretch of beach that comprises Playa Delfines is visited by an average of 5,000 visitors every day during peak tourist periods.

Half of Cancún’s GDP is generated by tourism-related activities, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Meanwhile, nearly 650,000 tonnes of sargassum has buried the Quintana Roo coastline between the start of the year and June 24, and shows no signs of relenting, with July and August projected to be the worst months.

Hotel occupancy in the Riviera Maya is reported to be 50%, down from the 80% or more that is typical of the summer season.

Source: Noticaribe (sp), Milenio (sp)

Guerrero drug trafficker sponsored teaching students’ graduation class

Simon Schatzberg

July 17, 2019

A photo of the class behind the head table announces sponsorship by wanted gang leader.

A graduation ceremony last Friday at a teacher training college in Guerrero was sponsored by a cartel leader who is a fugitive from justice.

The graduating class of 25 students at the Tierra Caliente Teachers’ College in Arcelia, Guerrero, chose Johnny “El Mojarro” Hurtado Olascoaga, the leader of the Familia Michoacana cartel, to sponsor their graduation.

Images of the ceremony uploaded to Twitter by the local government show the drug trafficker’s name printed on a poster. He did not attend the ceremony.

Arcelia is known to be a stronghold of the Familia cartel.

The Education Secretariat of Guerrero (SEG) released a statement distancing itself from Hurtado’s sponsorship of the class.

“The Education Secretariat of Guerrero has nothing to do with the designations of class sponsors, which are made by the graduating students,” the statement read.

“The decision is the responsibility of graduation committees, in which SEG personnel do not participate.”

However, SEG official Praxedis Mojica Molina was present at the ceremony, and Arcelia Mayor Adolfo Torales Catalán also attended and spoke positively of Hurtado.

“Today, we reaffirm our friendship and respect, and we ask for continued support to live in an environment of peace, harmony and coexistence,” said the mayor.

“Our greetings go to Johnny Hurtado Olascaoga, and we recognize him for having agreed to sponsor the 2015-2019 graduating class.”

[wpgmza id=”217″]

Hurtado has been wanted by federal authorities since 2012. In 2016, the Attorney General’s Office offered an award of 3 million pesos (US $158,000) for information leading to his capture.

He is wanted for at least 10 crimes, and Interpol has also circulated a red notice against him.

Source: Infobae (sp), Milenio (sp)

After describing prison as ’24-hour mental torture,’ El Chapo sentenced to life

MND Staff

July 17, 2019

Guzmán will spend the rest of his life in jail.

Notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison today on drug trafficking charges by a United States federal judge who accused him of “overwhelming evil.”

Before the sentence was handed down, the 62-year-old former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel told Judge Brian Cogan that his imprisonment in the United States “has been psychological, emotional, mental torture 24 hours a day.”

Guzmán claimed that the jurors who heard his case were influenced by media reports on his trial, an argument that his lawyers also made when requesting a retrial.

“Since the government of the United States is going to send me to a prison where my name will not ever be heard again, I take advantage of this opportunity to say there was no justice here,” he told the New York court.

The court also heard from Andrea Vélez, a former associate of Guzmán, who said that he paid the Hells Angels motorcycle gang US $1 million to have her killed but she escaped to the United States with the help of U.S. authorities.

Handing down the mandatory term of life plus 30 years, Cogan said he would have imposed the harshest possible sentence even if the law had given him any leeway.

Any redeeming qualities the convicted smuggler might have were canceled out by his “overwhelming evil” actions,” he said.

The judge also ordered Guzmán to forfeit US $12.6 billion, an amount that represents the total amount of illegal drugs the jury determined he shipped to the U.S.

The Sinaloa native, who was extradited to the United States in January 2017, was convicted in February on charges of trafficking, organized crime, involvement in multiple murder conspiracies and illegal use of firearms.

Jurors heard from 56 witnesses during the 11-week trial, including many former associates who offered an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of the Sinaloa Cartel.

They gave testimony about bribes El Chapo allegedly paid – including payments to former presidents Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto, murders he ordered, his life of luxury and womanizing and the Sinaloa Cartel’s smuggling methods, among other details.

The defense portrayed witnesses as unreliable opportunists who in some cases were seeking reductions to their own prison terms.

During the trial and in the months since, Guzmán has been held in solitary confinement in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a high security prison in lower Manhattan.

Cogan last month rejected Guzmán’s request to be allowed more time to exercise on the jail’s roof after prosecutors warned of an escape risk.

The drug lord escaped twice from prisons in Mexico, once in a laundry cart and once via a 1.5-kilometer-long tunnel.

After today’s sentence was handed down, United States Attorney Richard Donoghue told reporters that “never again will Guzmán pour poison over our border, making billions while innocent lives are lost to drug violence and addiction.”

“We can ensure that he spends every minute of every day of the rest of his life in prison,” he added.

But Guzmán’s lawyers said they will appeal the sentence, arguing that up to five jurors violated the judge’s orders by following the case in the media during the trial.

“All we had asked for is a fair trial. I’m not here to tell you that Joaquín Guzmán is a saint . . . Whatever you think of Joaquín Guzmán, he still deserves a fair trial, everybody does in America . . .” said Jeffrey Lichtman.

Source: Reuters (en), Milenio (sp)

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