A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
One of Mexico's most notorious drug lords is now in U.S. custody.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada founded the Sinaloa cartel along with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Last night, U.S. authorities announced he had been arrested, and they say he will appear before an American judge soon.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Eyder Peralta is following the story from his base in Mexico City. Eyder, tell us about this arrest and who this man is.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: So, A, about the arrest, we know very little. U.S. officials tell us this was a multiagency operation, and we know that Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada somehow ended up on a plane to the United States. U.S. officials also announced that they had also arrested Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo Guzman and one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel.
But the big fish here is El Mayo Zambada. He's arguably the most important drug lord in Mexico and perhaps even the world. And he had never been caught before. Unlike his once partner El Chapo, El Mayo Zambada kept a low profile. U.S. officials first indicted him more than 20 years ago, and they accused him of shipping tons of drugs into the U.S. and using millions of dollars to bribe some of Mexico's most powerful public officials. And this man is important because he is believed to lead one of the most important factions of the Sinaloa cartel. And the Sinaloa cartel is one of the biggest exporters of synthetic drugs in the world, and that includes fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so a very high-profile arrest. What could this mean for the drug war and the drug trade?
PERALTA: I spoke to Gerardo Rodriguez last night. He studied security at the University of the Americas Puebla. And he says, we will continue to see fentanyl smuggled into the U.S. Rodriguez says the demand in the United States is too great and the profit incentive remains the same. But this is a huge hit for the Sinaloa cartel. Remember, its former leader El Chapo Guzman is serving a life sentence in the U.S. Two of his sons are also in custody. And the cartel has now lost a decades-long leader. So it leaves a huge power vacuum, and Professor Rodriguez says that we should expect to see a spike in violence.
GERARDO RODRIGUEZ: Maybe what we can see is what we saw in Columbia, is the pulverization of the biggest cartels. Maybe the disputes will arise inside the cartel of Sinaloa.
PERALTA: So he's saying that maybe the Sinaloa cartel will implode. Or maybe all of this ends with an all-out fight between Sinaloa and the second most powerful cartel, the Jalisco New Generation. And it's important to note that none of this would actually be new. Sinaloa was already fractured, and these two cartels are already fighting a war. Just this week, fighting got so bad in southern Mexico that some 600 civilians had to flee across the border to Guatemala.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Now, the drug trade in Mexico has already been a big deal in U.S. presidential politics. Republicans, including Donald Trump, have proposed bombing cartels in Mexico to stop fentanyl from coming into the U.S. Any sense, Eyder, on how this might play out on the campaign trail?
PERALTA: Look, this is no doubt a huge win for the Biden administration, but it's not a silver bullet. It doesn't solve the addiction problem in the U.S. It doesn't solve the violence or trafficking problem in Mexico. So I would bet we'll keep hearing much of the same rhetoric coming from American politicians.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Eyder Peralta reporting from Mexico City. Thank you.
PERALTA: Thank you, A.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTÍNEZ: Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday. Afterwards, she reiterated her support for Israel. But she also had some frank words.
MARTIN: Yeah, she said it's time for the war in Gaza to end. She said that Israel has the right to defend itself but that the fight against Hamas in Gaza for the past nine months has been devastating.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time, we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid was in the room. What'd you make of those remarks?
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Well, A, what we saw amounted to the first foreign policy speech of Harris' campaign. And it's also the most forceful statement that she has made on Gaza since she's become the likely Democratic nominee. You know, this war and how President Biden has handled it has been a divisive issue for Democrats. And we talked about this yesterday on the show, but some Democrats were curious to know whether Vice President Harris would act differently than Biden if she were to be elected president. And yesterday, we heard her speak directly to those who have disagreed with the administration's actions at one point.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HARRIS: And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done. So to everyone who has been calling for a cease-fire, and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you. Let's get the deal done so we can get a cease-fire to end the war. Let's bring the hostages home. And let's provide much needed relief to the Palestinian people.
KHALID: This all came a couple of hours after President Biden also met Israel's prime minister. And it's noteworthy to me that it was the vice president, not the president, who delivered on-camera remarks after the Israeli leader's visit.
MARTÍNEZ: So is all this a new thing for Harris? I mean, you've been listening to her speak about this for months now. Has anything changed?
KHALID: Well, the substance of what she said was similar to what she has said in the past and what we've heard from Biden, the same policies. But her tone was different. She tried to show the complexity of the situation, asking Americans not to see the war in Gaza through a binary lens. And there was this moment where she recited out loud, one by one, the names of Americans being held hostage by Hamas. She was also more direct than Biden in the empathy she expressed for Palestinian civilians, using some words, you know, that this administration has not used before. I think what was noticeable was that, collectively, this speech felt like one of the first times that we heard the vice president speak on foreign policy more in her own voice rather than just as an emissary for Biden.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, you've been talking, Asma, to people this week about what they want to hear from Kamala Harris on this issue. How do her remarks square with their expectations?
KHALID: I spoke to a number of people on the left of the Democratic Party who have been disappointed with how Biden has handled this war. And I'll note that these interviews were largely before the vice president's remarks. But one common theme was that they wanted to know if Harris would offer a different message than Biden. I think she has a delicate balancing act in the months ahead. You know, in this race, she has to speak to multiple parts of the Democratic Party at once. She's trying to win back some of the Democratic voters who felt alienated by how Biden has handled the war. But she also does not want to alienate supporters of Israel, who make up a key part of the party. And to that point, we saw a sign yesterday of this when she issued a statement condemning protesters in Washington, D.C., for spray painting pro-Hamas slogans on a monument during protests.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid. Thank you very much.
KHALID: Good to speak with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTÍNEZ: Tonight, in Paris, hundreds of thousands of people will line up along miles of the River Seine to watch the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.
MARTIN: Instead of a march through a stadium, though, something we're used to seeing, the athletes and performers will float on boats down the river. The spectacle will officially kick off two-plus weeks of competition.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Becky Sullivan is right there in the heart of Paris. Becky, what does the big city look like ahead of tonight's big event?
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Well, I got to say, the Olympic fever here is in full force. You know, I've been walking around these last few days seeing tons of international visitors who are out and about wearing their country's gear. That said, the heart of Paris has been quiet because there's a security perimeter. Officials have been sort of racing to set things up, and so there are actually fences around many of the city's most iconic landmarks.
But still, you can see grandstands set up on the walkways and the bridges along the river. And walking around this week, I've been able to catch some glimpses of little rehearsals happening, like dancers on rooftops and such. Right now, it's been a little gloomy and rainy today. So we're all hoping that it's going to clear up in time because it really should be a spectacle, this whole thing with the backdrop of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, all right at sunset, should things work out.
MARTÍNEZ: Celine Dion and Lady Gaga singing at tonight's opening ceremony...
SULLIVAN: Exactly.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Cannot not happen. All right, now, it wouldn't be an Olympic Games without some controversy, including a war of words between the U.S. and the International Olympic Committee on the issue of doping. What's going on with that?
SULLIVAN: Yeah, that's right. So this dates back to this spring, when revelations came out that 23 Chinese swimmers had failed doping tests in the months before the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021. And at the time, the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is deeply tied to the IOC, knew about it but allowed them to compete anyway. And so three of those swimmers won gold medals, and several of them will compete here in Paris.
U.S. officials have accused WADA essentially of just deference to China. The United States Department of Justice has opened an investigation into this. And in response, this week the IOC officials attacked U.S. officials during a session about the Salt Lake City bid for the 2034 Winter Olympics. The IOC has attached a rider to the contract to host those Olympics basically allowing them to yank it back if this whole thing escalates, which just yesterday, the leaders of three congressional committees and subcommittees sent a letter putting WADA on notice. And so, it's a mess. Not sure exactly where this is going to go yet.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, now, we mentioned how the Olympic ceremony is tonight, the opening ceremony. Games, though, those are underway.
SULLIVAN: That's right.
MARTÍNEZ: Team USA women's soccer opened up with a 3-0 win over Zambia. So, Becky, what are you looking most forward to see when you're there in Paris?
SULLIVAN: Well, let me answer this question, actually, in the eyes of Team USA basketball star Steph Curry, who, as you know, A, is a huge megastar in the U.S. He's a four-time NBA champion for the Golden State Warriors. And he basically, his entire career has always been the center of attention in any game he plays. But here in Paris, he is actually making his very first Olympic appearance. And so even for somebody like him, it's just a totally different experience, very humbling, as he said yesterday in a press conference.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEPHEN CURRY: When you get around the other athletes, it's like, we're all representing our country. And the NBA stuff doesn't make us any different, you know, than the next guy or girl to our left or, to our right. We all got the same colors, the same outfits, same letters across your chest.
SULLIVAN: And so he went on to say that he's looking forward to seeing some events in between his busy basketball schedule. He's looking forward to swimming. He's looking forward to gymnastics. I share that anticipation. Swimming in particular kicks off tomorrow with a huge race, which is the women's 400-meter freestyle, which is this, like, clash of giants between the U.S. star Katie Ledecky, Australia's Ariarne Titmus, Canada's Summer McIntosh. That's just, like, a massive headliner event. And then gymnastics, the big women's team final, led by Simone Biles and the rest of Team USA, that's going to be Tuesday. So, you know, overall - like Steph, I should say - it's my first Olympics, too.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
SULLIVAN: And so I'm going to be trying to take his advice. He said be where your feet are. I'm going to try to be taking it all in and enjoying it.
MARTÍNEZ: I can't wait to see if Noah Lyles can complete the 100-meter, 200-meter sprint Olympic gold. That'll be what I'm looking forward to seeing.
SULLIVAN: Absolutely.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Becky Sullivan in Paris. Becky, thank you.
SULLIVAN: You're so welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
