Joaquín Guzmán will likely be sentenced next week to life in prison
by the El Reportero’s wire services
Reports that United States authorities issued a visa last month to the mother of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán appear to have been incorrect.
Yesterday, a lawyer for Guzmán said Consuelo Loera has sent a letter to United States President Donald Trump requesting a humanitarian visa to enter the United States and to plead for justice for her son.
José Luis Rodríguez Meza told Radio Fórmula that the letter was delivered but a response has not been received, nor has there been any word about the status of Loera’s visa application.
“We haven’t gotten any information from the embassy but, well, we’re confident that Trump will give her the visa, at least, because it would be a humanitarian act,” José Luis Rodríguez Meza said.
In February, Loera wrote President López Obrador, asking for his help to visit her son. He agreed to do so.
El Chapo was convicted by a United States jury in February for a slate of drug trafficking charges and will be sentenced on July 17. Prosecutors are asking for life imprisonment plus 30 years.
Source: Milenio (sp)
Mexico Doubles Consular Budget to face Trump Raids
The Government of Mexico doubled the consular budget for its strategy to serve Mexican irregular immigrants in the United States in the face of the raids that Donald Trump will initiate, the Foreign Ministry announced today.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) reported it has doubled the amount of financial resources for these purposes when warning that before the electoral process in the United States and Trump’s intention to be re-elected, Mexicans will become the center of their anti-immigrant campaign.
Mexico alerted citizens located on the other side of the border that are on the verge of massive raids and deportations set for next Sunday, which has sown fear among nationals and placed on alert the 52 consulates of Mexico in the neighboring country.
During the first quarter of the year, the Ministry of Finance approved additional resources for four Foreign Ministry units responsible for the defense of migrants abroad, with a total of one thousand 234 million pesos (about 70 million dollars), areas that had a budget of barely half that amount.
Mexican Foreign Ministry sources recalled that US governors and mayors opposed to the Trump plan announced they will implement measures to help families of migrants affected by the raids.
They indicated the operation is aimed at two thousand people in at least 10 cities and could include ‘collateral deportations’, which means that those who are in place with the wanted migrants will also be apprehended by the agents.
In that sense, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the Office of Immigrant Affairs, asked to be aware of the rights of the undocumented if a federal migration agent arrives at his home or approaches in a public place.
Venezuelan Government and Opposition Agree on Permanent Dialogue
Venezuela’s government and opposition have agreed to set up a platform for ongoing negotiations to resolve the country’s simmering political crisis after three days of talks in Barbados, mediator nation Norway said Thursday.
Representatives of President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido met from Monday to Wednesday in the Caribbean island nation for negotiations, which Maduro has hailed as successful.
The Barbados talks were an extension of the first round of negotiations in Oslo in May, which ended with no concrete advances.
“After an intense day of work, we developed six points with the government of Norway and the opposition,” Maduro said Thursday in a television and radio interview, though he did not specify what the points were.
