Mexican drug lord makes Forbes' billionaire list

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

What do software mogul Bill Gates and banking investor Warren Buffett have in common with wanted Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera?

They are all featured in Forbes magazine's world's billionaires report as "self-made" billionaires.

Guzman Loera, whose nickname means Shorty, escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001. He heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel, investigators say. Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border blame the Sinaloa and other cartels for a surge in violence in the region.

He ranked 701th on Forbes' yearly report, with an estimated fortune of $1 billion.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora expressed outrage at the publication and described Forbes' calculations on Guzman Loera's fortune as mere "speculation."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/13/mexico.forbes.list/index.html

[DRoseDARs]

1. What the hell is Forbes magazine thinking? Why are they glorifying a drug lord?

Oh, that's right: It doesn't matter how bloody the money is or who was killed to get it, as long as there's a lot of it they'll make the list.

[yorgatron]

2. just as qualified as any other billionaire,except he probably killed fewer people to get that rich.

[Posteritatis]

7. How is this glorifying?

It's just a list of people with more than $1B, no more a reward or glorification than the Person of the Year is for Time.

[w4rma]

9. It's called reporting. Journalism. Not omitting information because it might offend sensibilities.

If the Mexican drug lord is a billionaire, then he is a billionaire. It doesn't matter *how* he got the money, it only matters that he has the money.

[MikeNearMcChord]

10. Pablo Escobar and the rest of the Medellin Cartel of Colombia

were featured in Forbes List of Billionaires, at the height of their power in the 80's and 90's.

[jxnmsdemguy65]

12. Nothing unusual about that, the Forbes fortune was built on opium

http://historyofalcoholanddrugs.typepad.com/alcohol_and_drugs_history/2005/01/american_opium_.html

[DCKit]

3. "...and described Forbes' calculations on Guzman Loera's fortune as mere "speculation.""

after they expunged as much information as possible about his links to Mexico's ruling class and his U.S. enablers.

Who knew?

[Deja Q]

4. No surprise here. I've read despicable articles and quotes in their magazines in the past.

So why not elevate a drug dealer amongst the higher echelons? The cynical side of me would say it's fitting a thing for them to do.

(I've read some good articles from them as well, but they've had one or two real winners when insulting the working class.)

[KamaAina]

6. This from the magazine that once described the 50th State as "the People's Republic of Hawai'i"

:eyes:

[lynnertic]

5. dig it.

this sends our impressionable youth a couple messages
1) drug-lording ain't so bad (ergo drugs ain't so bad)
2) this dude ranks up there with Bill Gates (Microsoft ain't so bad either)

[Massacure]

8. How do you know how much a drug lord makes?

I doubt they pay taxes on their income.

[Posteritatis]

11. There's probably a big pile of mostly-legit goings-on around him as well

If I earn my first zillion selling coke, branch out, and report my income on the apartment complex I bought on the side scrupulously as something of a smokescreen... etc.

[ozu]

13. Seems like a conservative estimate

Amado Carrillo of the Juarez Cartel's fortune was estimated at over $25 billion when he died.