The Latest on the sentencing of the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo. (all times local):
9:20 a.m.
The wife of the Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo" has arrived at her husband's long-awaited sentencing in New York.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, arrives for his sentencing at Brooklyn federal court, Wednesday, July 17, 2019 in New York. The 62-year-old Guzman was convicted in February on multiple conspiracy counts in an epic drug-trafficking case. (AP PhotoMark Lennihan)
Emma Coronel Aispuro walked into the heavily guarded federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Wednesday as Joaquin Guzman prepared to learn his fate for running a murderous drug-trafficking ring.
Coronel regularly attended Guzman's proceedings even when testimony cast her in a harsh light.
Guzman faces a mandatory sentence of life without parole following his February conviction.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, arrives for his sentencing at Brooklyn federal court, Wednesday, July 17, 2019 in New York. The 62-year-old Guzman was convicted in February on multiple conspiracy counts in an epic drug-trafficking case. (AP PhotoMark Lennihan)
He will be offered the chance to speak publicly before U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan pronounces Guzman's sentence.
Guzman is expected to serve his time at the "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado.
That lockup houses some of the most notorious criminals ever to set foot in an American courtroom.
1 a.m.
Will the notorious Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo" go quietly?
For Joaquin Guzman, that's the biggest question at his sentencing in New York City on Wednesday.
The highly-anticipated hearing could be his last chance to speak publicly before spending the rest of his life behind bars at a maximum security U.S. prison.
The 62-year-old Guzman was convicted in February on multiple conspiracy counts in an epic drug-trafficking case. The government says the guilty verdict at an 11-week trial triggered a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
Prosecutors say evidence showed that under Guzman's orders, the Sinaloa cartel was responsible for multiple murders and for smuggling mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States during his 25-year reign. The defense said he was framed.
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
