ZAPATA POWERLIFTING
SATURDAY MARCH 1, 2014
FREE
ALL 20 LADY HAWKS ADVANCE TO REGIONAL MEET, 1B
DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY
TO 4,000 HOMES
A HEARST PUBLICATION
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
ELECTION 2014
MEXICO
Voter ID laws
Judge sets ‘Chapo’ trial in motion
Primaries offer 1st major test
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, MARK STEVENSON AND E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — In elections that begin next week, voters in 10 states will be required to present photo identification before casting ballots — the first major test of voter ID laws after years of legal challenges arguing that the measures are designed to suppress voting. The first election is March 4 in Texas, followed by nine other primaries running through early September that will set the
See VOTER IDS PAGE 11A
Photo by Eric Gay | AP
An election official checks a voter’s photo identification at an early voting polling site, in Austin, on Feb. 26. Voters in 10 states are now required to present photo identification before casting ballots — the first major test of voter ID laws after years of legal challenges arguing that the measures are designed to suppress voting.
TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
DESIRE FOR PEACE
MEXICO CITY — A federal judge ruled last week that drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman must stand trial on drug-trafficking charges and remain for the immediate future in Mexico, where authorities say there is no chance of escaping his cell in the nation’s highest-security prison. It is at least the second case launched against Guzman in Mexico since he was captured Saturday morning in a condominium in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan after 13 years on the run. He has been indicted in at least seven U.S. jurisdictions for crimes committed during his reign as fugitive head of the Sinaloa cartel, a multi-billion dollar cartel that dominated drug trafficking in much of Mexico and stretched into dozens of other countries. Top Mexican officials have made it increasingly clear that they want Guzman to face all local charges, and interrogation by Mexican investigators looking to dismantle his cartel, before they consider extraditing him to the U.S. A second judge was expected to rule Tuesday on whether Guzman should go to trial on separate drug-trafficking charges. Guzman was being
GUZMAN held in a maximum-security prison in the state of Jalisco in 2001 when he escaped in a laundry cart, according to the official account, and spent more than a decade running the Sinaloa cartel from a series of hideouts around western Mexico. Mexican officials say that won’t happen again. “We think he’s being perfectly guarded and watched, and we don’t think it’s necessary to do anything else,” Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, the country’s most powerful lawenforcement official, told The Associated Press. “He will be very isolated. He won’t be allowed to continue with his operations.” But experts say President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government hasn’t proven able to match headline-grabbing arrests like Guzman’s with complex, long-term investigations and prosecutions of deep-rooted criminal networks. Cases have stalled, cartels keep operating and last year one of Guz-
See GUZMAN PAGE 11A
THE UKRAINE
Russia gets threats from US Photo by Victor Strife | The Zapata Times
TAMIU students bow their heads in prayer Wednesday evening during a candlelight vigil for Venezuela. The vigil organized by the Student Government Association was held in effort to bring awareness of the current political, social and economic issues facing the people of Venezuela.
Venezuelan students get support from area By MALENA CHARUR THE ZAPATA TIMES
LAREDO — With a prayer for peace in Venezuela, a group of students and local residents gathered late Wednesday at TAMIU to offer their support to the political problems plaguing the country. In Venezuela, universities and others opposing the government, including the middle class, have been protesting against inflation, which is rising at an annual rate of more than 56 percent, according to the Associated Press. David Gonzalez Febres, a native of Venezuela and an International Business student at Texas A&M International Uni-
versity, who has lived in Laredo for three years, said Wednesday’s candlelight vigil at TAMIU was intended as a peaceful protest to support students in Venezuela so that people from elsewhere will be aware of what is happening there. He said the Venezuelan government has banned all types of communication in addition to the other problems the country is facing. “We are here in protest mode to support students in my country. We have much insecurity. Last year 25,000 people were killed in common crimes in a country of 28 or 29 million people,” Gonzalez said. Associated Press re-
ports indicate there have been 16 deaths and 150 injuries in the past three weeks from protests in Caracas and other cities in Venezuela. There have also been more than 500 detained during that time, most of whom have already been released, news reports state. Gonzalez also referred to the problems of food shortages and unemployment that plague the country. “In a country rich in oil, right now people line up for a bottle of milk in a government store,” he said. “You can only buy once a week and the lines are endless.” Nicolas Maduro, who became president upon the death of Hugo Chavez
in April, says the protests are part of an opposition plan to promote a coup, Associated Press stories report. Gonzalez, without taking a political position, attributes the situation to government mismanagement and believes a change guaranteeing citizens the confidence to go out without being assaulted or killed would be good. “What we want is a change that allows (citizens) to meet their basic needs. This is an opportunity to do something. If it is not resolved now, we will have a dictatorship, and we will end up like Cuba,” Gonzalez said.
See STUDENTS
PAGE 11A
By DALTON BENNETT AND KARL RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine — Armed men described as Russian troops took control of key airports in Crimea on Friday and Russian transport planes flew into the strategic region, Ukrainian officials said, an ominous sign of the Kremlin’s iron hand in Ukraine. President Barack Obama bluntly warned Moscow “there will be costs” if it intervenes militarily. The sudden arrival of men in military uniforms patrolling key strategic facilities prompted Ukraine to accuse Russia of a “military invasion and occupation” — a claim that brought an alarming new dimension to the crisis. In a hastily arranged statement delivered from the White House, Obama called on Russia to respect the independence and territory of Ukraine and not try to take advantage of its neighbor, which is under-
going political upheaval. “Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing,” Obama said. Such action by Russia would not serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, Russia or Europe, Obama said, and would represent a “profound interference” in matters he said must be decided by the Ukrainian people. “Just days after the world came to Russia for the Olympic Games, that would invite the condemnation of nations around the world,” Obama said. “The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.” He did not say what those costs might be. Earlier Friday, Ukraine’s fugitive president resurfaced in Russia to deliver a defiant condemnation of what he called a
See UKRAINE PAGE 10A