NEW YORK: Accused Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is an “excellent father, friend, brother, son and partner,” his young wife said as his landmark trial in New York wound up.
“Everything that has been said in court about Joaquin, the good and the bad, has done nothing to change how I think about him after years of knowing him,” Emma Coronel, 29, said in a message on her Instagram account late Thursday.
In his almost three-month-long trial, Guzman, the 69-year-old former head of the Sinaloa drugs cartel known widely as El Chapo, or Shorty, was accused of smuggling hundreds of tons of drugs into the United States over the past quarter-century.
On Monday, the jury starts deliberating on its verdict. If convicted, Guzman is likely to spend the rest of his life in a US jail, having twice escaped from Mexican prisons before being extradited to the United States two years ago.
During the trial, which closed Thursday, Guzman’s former henchmen and colleagues said he had ordered the deaths of dozens of rivals, underlings suspected of being snitches and police officers who refused to take his bribes.
Part of the evidence presented by US prosecutors indicates that Coronel was at the very least an accomplice in Guzman’s escape from Mexico’s Altiplano prison in 2015.
She has not however been charged with any crime and showed up almost every day in court to be with her husband.
A former right-hand man of the drugs lord said that when Guzman was jailed between 2014 and 2015, he used Coronel’s prison visits to pass messages to accomplices planning his escape via a mile (1.5 kilometer) long tunnel from the shower stall of his cell.
During the trial the prosecution played a recording of a phone call between Coronel and Guzman, in which she passed the telephone to her father. Guzman then informed his father-in-law about an illicit drugs shipment into the US.
“My name was often mentioned and called into question,” admitted Coronel, a tall Mexican-American woman with long dark hair, with whom Guzman has two daughters.
“I can only say that I have done nothing to be ashamed of. I am not perfect, but I consider myself a good human being who never intentionally hurt anyone,” she said.
The US authorities do not allow visits or phone calls between Guzman and his wife. They also forbade the couple from briefly hugging each other in court during the trial.
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El Chapo’s wife says drug kingpin is ‘excellent’ husband, father
El Chapo’s wife says drug kingpin is ‘excellent’ husband, father
Modi ally proposes social media ban for India’s teens as global debate grows
- India is the world’s second-biggest smartphone market with 750 million devices and a billion Internet users
- South Asian nation is a key growth market for social media apps and does not set a minimum age for access
NEW DELHI: An ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proposed a bill to ban social media for children, as the world’s biggest market for Meta and YouTube joins a global debate on the impact of social media on young people’s health and safety.
“Not only are our children becoming addicted to social media, but India is also one of the world’s largest producers of data for foreign platforms,” lawmaker L.S.K. Devarayalu said on Friday.
“Based on this data, these companies are creating advanced AI systems, effectively turning Indian users into unpaid data providers, while the strategic and economic benefits are reaped elsewhere,” he said.
Australia last month became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access in a move welcomed by many parents and child advocates but criticized by major technology companies and free-speech advocates. France’s National Assembly this week backed legislation to ban children under 15 from social media, while Britain, Denmark and Greece are studying the issue.
Facebook operator Meta, YouTube-parent Alphabet and X did not respond on Saturday to emails seeking comment on the Indian legislation. Meta has said it backs laws for parental oversight but that “governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites.”
India’s IT ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market with 750 million devices and a billion Internet users, is a key growth market for social media apps and does not set a minimum age for access.
Devarayalu’s 15-page Social Media (Age Restrictions and Online Safety) Bill, which is not public but was seen by Reuters, says no one under 16 “shall be permitted to create, maintain, or hold” a social media account and those found to have one should have them disabled.
“We are asking that the entire onus of ensuring users’ age be placed on the social media platforms,” Devarayalu said.
The government’s chief economic adviser attracted attention on Thursday by saying India should draft policies on age-based access limits to tackle “digital addiction.”
Devarayalu’s legislation is a private member’s bill — not proposed to parliament by a federal minister — but such bills often trigger debates in parliament and influence lawmaking.
He is from the Telugu Desam Party, which governs the southern state Andhra Pradesh and is vital to Modi’s coalition government.
“Not only are our children becoming addicted to social media, but India is also one of the world’s largest producers of data for foreign platforms,” lawmaker L.S.K. Devarayalu said on Friday.
“Based on this data, these companies are creating advanced AI systems, effectively turning Indian users into unpaid data providers, while the strategic and economic benefits are reaped elsewhere,” he said.
Australia last month became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access in a move welcomed by many parents and child advocates but criticized by major technology companies and free-speech advocates. France’s National Assembly this week backed legislation to ban children under 15 from social media, while Britain, Denmark and Greece are studying the issue.
Facebook operator Meta, YouTube-parent Alphabet and X did not respond on Saturday to emails seeking comment on the Indian legislation. Meta has said it backs laws for parental oversight but that “governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites.”
India’s IT ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market with 750 million devices and a billion Internet users, is a key growth market for social media apps and does not set a minimum age for access.
Devarayalu’s 15-page Social Media (Age Restrictions and Online Safety) Bill, which is not public but was seen by Reuters, says no one under 16 “shall be permitted to create, maintain, or hold” a social media account and those found to have one should have them disabled.
“We are asking that the entire onus of ensuring users’ age be placed on the social media platforms,” Devarayalu said.
The government’s chief economic adviser attracted attention on Thursday by saying India should draft policies on age-based access limits to tackle “digital addiction.”
Devarayalu’s legislation is a private member’s bill — not proposed to parliament by a federal minister — but such bills often trigger debates in parliament and influence lawmaking.
He is from the Telugu Desam Party, which governs the southern state Andhra Pradesh and is vital to Modi’s coalition government.
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