‘El Chapo’ lawyers aim to portray Joaquin Guzman as the victim of a vast conspiracy

Federal prosecutors have spent months painting Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman as the most ruthless, brilliant and powerful trafficker who ever lived, marshaling reels of clandestine tape, mountains of interdicted drugs and a jury box worth of convicted felons to try the man they say was the Napoleon of a vast narco-empire. “It’s almost like a test of the U.S. credibility as far as prosecuting drug traffickers.” Rather than dispute the Justice Department’s scores of witnesses or its handcarts of evidence, the defense repeatedly sought to pit Guzman against the system that indicted him, the cartoon villains who have taken the stand at the behest of the government, and the idea of “El Chapo” himself. “Being an effective trial lawyer is managing the rules of evidence but also managing the narrative, so that you create sympathy and support for your side in a way that’s almost complementary to the evidence.” Among the themes the defense lawyers have teased out on cross-examination: that Guzman’s longtime partner and purported successor Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is, in fact, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel; that their client is a showboat who lived off his legend while racking up millions in debt; that the Mexican government and the American justice system are both so hopelessly corrupt they would seek to convict a figurehead and leave the true powers untouched; and that the witnesses they’ve collected to do it are each more evil than the man standing trial. Prosecutors went after Guzman because he was “all over the news,” while the aging and powerful Zambada remained “in the shadows,” Guzman attorney Eduardo Balarezo insisted while cross-examining Zambada’s son Vicente. “There was a campaign against” Guzman, Vicente Zambada agreed, though on redirect he assured the court that Guzman “is a leader — another leader like my father.” The prosecution’s greatest strength has been the number of powerful cooperating witnesses whose months of detailed testimony laid bare the inner workings of a multibillion-dollar drug trade spanning decades and continents.