Tag: Gangland

Pope Francis Urges Inmates To Become Prophets During Mexican Prison Visit

 

Preach: Pope Francis was given a cross made by an inmate during his visit to the Ciudad Juarez prison. Photo: Daily Mail
 
Via Daily Mail– Pope Francis has told prisoners in a notorious Mexican prison to become ‘prophets’ and to use their experiences through ‘hell’ to help the country break its cycle of violence.

Francis made his plea at the state penitentiary of Ciudad Juarez, a city once known as the world’s murder capital, days after a riot killed 49 inmates at another Mexican prison. 

The pope often visits prisons during his trips abroad and he chose the 3,000-capacity state prison of Ciudad Juarez for the last day of this five-day visit to Mexico.

He visited its newly-painted chapel and addressed hundreds assembled in the prison yard, telling them they should use their experiences to help ‘put end to this cycle of violence and exclusion.’

‘The one who has suffered the greatest pain, and we could say “has experienced hell,” can become a prophet in society.’

The pope argued that a country’s security problem ‘is not resolved only by incarcerating,’ arguing that the structural and cultural causes of crime must be addressed.

Read more and see more pics from Pope Francis’ prison visit on the Daily Mail.

Mexican Cartel Leader El Chapo Wants To Finish His Prison Sentence In The U.S. 

“El Chapo” and his right hand man captured following manhunt.

According to The Daily Mail, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, undoubtedly one the world’s most powerful, violent and feared druglords is strongly contemplating pleading guilty in the U.S. for his international cartel operations under one condition: that he spend his time behind bars in a minimum security U.S. prison. 


To some the request seems outlandish not only because of the complexity of his crime syndicate which has wreaked havoc for decades from Mexico to the U.S., but also because Mr. Guzman has escaped not one, but two maximum security prisons in Mexico. His first time ‘on the run’ spanned 13 years!

Only time will tell if the U.S. will consider his request and allow him more than ‘one hour of sunshine’ a day in minimum security prison.

Via The Daily Mail:

The arrest of one of El Chapo most trusted advisers comes as it is claimed the drugs lord is willing to plead guilty in the U.S. – as long as he is not jailed in a maximum-security prison.

The Sinaloa cartel leader believes he would enjoy better treatment in an American cell compared to the ‘extreme freezing conditions’ of his current Mexican lock-up where he ‘fears for his life’, his lawyer revealed in an exclusive interview with Univision last week.

However, he will only plead guilty if US prosecutors promise to spare him from its most brutal institutions ‘where he would not see the light of the sun for more than an hour a day’.

Mexican and U.S. officials want to have El Chapo tried and imprisoned in America because of his track record of escaping from Mexican prisons.

Since being recaptured in January, the Sinaloa cartel leader has been held in the same maximum-security prison he escaped from just outside Mexico City.

In a bid to prevent another breakout, Mexican jail workers have reportedly been moving El Chapo from cell-to-cell on a daily basis.

Actor Sean Penn Regrets El Chapo Interview

A picture of Sean Penn and “El Chapo” displayed on Rolling Stone’s website after the magazine published an interview by the actor after the drug lord’s arrest.

“Let me be clear. My article has failed.” -Sean Penn 

Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn on Friday rejected Mexico’s claim that his secret meeting with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was crucial to the drug kingpin’s recapture, saying officials were trying to put him in the crosshairs of the feared cartel.

Penn also told talk show host Charlie Rose that he regrets the fallout from the Rolling Stone article based on his interview with Guzman. 

Their meeting in a jungle hideout was the first interview anyone scored with the fugitive drug lord, and Penn said he had hoped it would spur a broader discussion on the drug war.

In Penn’s first major television interview about the meeting, Rose asked the actor whether he believed Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government had deliberately sought to credit him with Guzman’s capture to put him at risk from the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Yes. There is this myth about the visit that we made, my colleagues and I with El Chapo, that it was… ‘essential’ to his capture. We know the Mexican government, they clearly were humiliated by the notion that someone found him before they did.” 

Read more about Sean Penn’s controversial meeting that may have taken down Mexico’s most powerful cartel boss on Fortune.