TIME Magazine Asia May 21, 2018 Back Issue

THE TRIAL OF EL CHAPO
When Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán was born in the rugged village of La Tuna in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains in 1957, the houses were made of mud, there was no electricity or running water and mules provided the only form of transport. His mother described how she and his father scraped by growing beans and corn on the rocky slopes to care for him and his ten siblings. Known as El Chapo (or Shorty) for his diminutive, stocky stature, Guzmán toiled as a child to help bring food to the table, hauling sacks of oranges around the hills to sell to peasant farmers for a few pesos. Fast forward six decades later, Guzmán languishes in New York City’s highest security prison, accused of trafficking drugs worth $14 billion into the U.S. one of the biggest narcotics cases in U.S. criminal history. As Guzmán faces justice, America’s war on drugs is also on the defense.