NEW YORK _ This is sure to make Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman homesick.
Just as U.S. federal prosecutors in Brooklyn issued a final plea to jurors Wednesday to convict the accused Mexican drug lord, the president of Mexico announced his government will no longer prosecute cartel leaders.
"Capos will not be arrested, because that is not our strategy. It is no longer the intention to arm operatives against capos," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in Spanish at a news conference held Wednesday in Mexico City, according to reports.
"What we want is to reduce insecurity by attending to the causes," he added.
Guzman, known more commonly as "El Chapo," has been on trial in federal court in Brooklyn since November 2018. He has pleaded not guilty to a 10-count indictment accusing him of leading the largest drug trafficking organization in history, the Sinaloa Cartel.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Goldbarg concluded the government's colossal case against the drug lord late Wednesday, asking jurors to find him guilty of all charges, which would send him to prison for life.
During her summation, Goldbarg said Guzman broke out of prison in the past because he feared he would be passed over to "the gringos."
In January 2017, following two successful escapes from prison, he was extradited to the U.S.
"He knew he was guilty of the drug trafficking charges he faced in the U.S.," she said. "He wanted to avoid sitting here in front of you."
During the kingpin's 11-week trial, his lawyers have tried to argue Guzman was scapegoated in a vast conspiracy plotted by his former associates and the Mexican government.
Guzman's attorney Eduardo Balarezo on Wednesday said he felt that Lopez Obrador's announcement confirmed his theory.
"The Mexican president's announcement today makes clear who the boss is in Mexico," he said.
