saturday, february 22 , 2020. the washington post eZ M2 A
BY SUSANNAH GEORGE
AND JOHN HUDSONKABUL — The United States plans
to sign a peace deal with the
Ta liban on Feb. 29 provided that a
week-long reduction in violence
across the country holds, accord-
ing to S ecretary of State Mike
Pompeo. The Ta liban also re-
leased a statement confirming the
plan to sign a peace deal that day.
The violence reduction, a deci-
sive condition of the possible
peace deal, began early Saturday
Kabul time — just after midnight,
according to Afghanistan’s Na-
tional Security Council and a se-
nior State Department official.
“U.S. negotiators in Doha have
come to an understanding with
the Ta liban on a significant and
nationwide reduction in violence
across Afghanistan,” Pompeo said
in a statement Friday, r eferring to
U.S.-Taliban talks in the Qatari
capital.
“Upon a successful implemen-
tation of this understanding,
signing of the U.S.-Taliban agree-
ment is expected to move for-
ward. We are preparing for the
signing to take place on Febru-
ary 29.”
The Ta liban said that “both
parties will now create a suitable
security situation in advance of
[the agreement’s] signing date,”
will “make arrangements for the
release of prisoners” and preparefor intra-Afghan negotiations, ac-
cording to the group’s statement
released to the media Friday.
The U.S. military command in
Kabul said it has nothing to an-
nounce at this time.
“ If things go according to the
plan,” the reduction in violencewill begin Saturday, Javid Faisal,
the Afghan National Security
Council’s spokesman, told The
Washington Post. The senior
State Department official con-
firmed the date, speaking on the
condition of anonymity to discuss
details of the violence-reduction
plan.
The week-long reduction in
v iolence will require the Ta liban,
the United States and Afghan
g overnment-aligned forces to
largely cease all planned offensive
operations nationwide. The peri-
od is not being called a cease-fire,
and U.S. forces will continue to
carry out counterterrorism oper-
ations against groups such as the
Islamic State and al-Qaeda in Af-
ghanistan.
Should the violence reduction
hold, American and Ta liban nego-
tiators will sign a peace deal by
the end of the month. That deal is
almost identical to the draft deal
reached in September.
Under that draft agreement,
the United States would with-
draw thousands of its troops in
exchange for a pledge from the
Ta liban to begin talks with theAfghan government and a vow
not to harbor terrorist groups
with aims to attack the West.
That draft deal also stated that
the United States would maintain
a small counterterrorism force in
Afghanistan. But in Ta liban state-
ments Friday, the group claimed
that the new deal would lead to
“the withdrawal of all foreign
forces... so that our people can
live a peaceful and prosperous life
under the shade of an Islamic
system.”
U.S. officials declined to pro-
vide further details about the
peace deal.
The delicate violence-reduc-
tion period comes as Afghan poli-
tics are deeply divided after the
announcement of disputed elec-
tion results this week.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
and his chief rival, Abdullah Ab-
dullah, both declared victory af-
ter the results were announced.
Abdullah, the country’s chief ex-
ecutive, declared the results ille-
gal and announced that he will
begin setting up a parallel govern-
ment.
Should this political turmoilpersist, it will further complicate
the Afghan government’s next
steps after the signing of the
peace deal. Once the deal is
signed, the Afghan government
will be tasked with forming a
negotiating team before launch-
ing its own talks with the Ta liban.
Ghani has said that he will
build a negotiating team that is
inclusive, but the possibility of
Abdullah forming a parallel gov-
ernment could severely under-
mine that effort. Additionally, the
formal Afghan military is sup-
ported by dozens of armed groups
that don’t always fall under the
government’s command and con-
trol. Any political upheaval in Ka-
bul could test some of those al-
ready weak allegiances.
U.S. officials have warned that
such groups could act as “spoil-
ers” and upend the deal despite
security guarantees from the Ta li-
ban and the Afghan government.
[email protected]
[email protected]hudson reported from istanbul. haq
nawaz khan in Peshawar, Pakistan,
contributed to this report.Pompeo, Taliban announce p lan to sign peace deal at end of month
sayed Mustafa/ePa-efe/shutterstock
Afghans gather in the city of Ghazni this week to demand peace.
The U.S.-Taliban deal hinges on a week-long reduction in violence.BY MARY BETH SHERIDAN
AND JUSTIN JOUVENALFor months, U.S. and Mexican
officials had been watching “El
Menchito.”
The suspect — allegedly a top
figure in the Jalisco New Genera-
tion cartel — had been arrested by
Mexico’s army in 2015 on drug-
trafficking charges. But he had
dodged extradition to the United
States through legal maneuvers.
On Thursday afternoon,
though, a judge dismissed his
lawyers’ latest objections. Mexi-
can officials hustled the suspect
— a baby-faced man in a khaki
jumpsuit — onto a helicopter and
whisked him to an airstrip in
northern Mexico, according to a
U.S. official. Within the hour, the
alleged trafficker was on an air-
plane bound for Dulles Interna-
tional Airport.
The handover was part of a
little-noticed surge of extradi-
tions that have occurred since
early December, when Attorney
General William P. Barr visited
Mexico to express concern over
the government’s response to
soaring violence.
El Menchito — Rubén Os-
eguera González — is perhaps the
best-known suspect extradited so
far. But around 40 other alleged
organized-crime figures have
been sent to the United States
since Barr’s Dec. 5 trip, officials
say. They include Ismael Zamba-
da Imperial, the son of another
major trafficker, as well as José
María Guizar Valencia, a leader of
the hyperviolent Zetas organiza-
tion.
“The numbers are up dramati-
cally,” said the U.S. official, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity because he was not autho-
rized to comment.
Oseguera, 30, was arraigned
Friday in federal court in the
District on counts of distributing
cocaine and methamphetamine
and using a firearm to facilitate
drug trafficking. He pleaded not
guilty on all counts, which carry a
minimum sentence of 15 years in
prison.
Federal prosecutor Brett Reyn-
olds said Oseguera, who wore a
tan jumpsuit and spoke only to
answer a judge’s questions, was a
serious flight risk and asked that
he be held until trial. A judge set a
detention hearing for Wednes-
day.
Mexican officials said 30 Mexi-
cans have been extradited to the
United States so far in 2020.
Alfonso Durazo, Mexico’s secre-
tary of public security, confirmed
Friday morning Oseguera had
been extradited in a “joint opera-
tion” with U.S. authorities.
Since taking office in Decem-
ber 2018, President Andrés Man-
uel López Obrador has pledged to
combat organized crime with so-
cial programs and a new National
Guard. But U.S. officials became
increasingly worried last year as
Mexico’s efforts appeared to flag.
In a ll of 2019, 58 Mexicans were
extradited to face U.S. charges,
down from 69 the previous year,
according to Foreign Ministry
documents obtained by The
Washington Post under Mexico’s
Freedom-of-Information law.
The army seized 62 percent
less heroin in the first 11 months
of 2019 than in the same period a
year earlier, and eradicated less
than half as much poppy. Mean-
while, homicides ticked up nearly
3 percent to 35,588, reaching his-
toric levels.
What really galvanized U.S. at-
tention were two events. In Octo-
ber, Sinaloa cartel gunmen
stormed the city of Culiacán, forc-
ing Mexican authorities to release
the son of Joaquin “El Chapo”
Guzman shortly after his capture.
Weeks later, assailants massacred
three women and six children —
all dual U.S.-Mexican nationals —
in the northern state of Sonora.
While Mexico’s government
has played down the spate of
extraditions in public, officials
say privately they have developed
a close working relationship with
the U.S. Justice Department and
are deploying lawyers to fight
efforts by suspects’ attorneys to
bog down extradition cases with
frivolous petitions.
Barr has also said little publicly
about his trips to Mexico in De-
cember and on Jan. 17. But
Trump’s threat in November to
designate Mexican cartels as ter-
rorist groups appears to have
given him considerable leverage.
Trump backed off that plan after
Mexican officials protested that it
would damage their nation’s
economy and international im-
age.
Oseguera was one of the most
important figures on the U.S. list
of alleged traffickers tied up in
extradition proceedings. He i s the
son of Nemesio Ruben Oseguera
Cervantes — “El Mencho” — lead-
er of the Jalisco cartel, viewed as
one of Mexico’s most powerful
drug organizations. The Justice
Department has described the
younger Oseguera as the second-
in-command of the cartel.
For decades, U.S. officials have
pushed Mexico to send alleged
traffickers to face American pros-
ecution, given the weakness and
corruption of the Mexican judi-
cial system. That weakness was
on display last month, when three
accused Sinaloa Cartel operatives
wanted by the U.S. government
broke out of the Reclusorio Sur
prison in Mexico City. T hey fled in
an official vehicle with a chauf-
feur, according to Mexican media
reports. Several government em-
ployees were detained on suspi-
cion of complicity.
Mexico has extradited some
major drug figures, notably
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, a
legendary figure who headed the
Sinaloa cartel. He was convicted
in U.S. federal court a year ago on
drug, weapons and other charges
and sentenced to life in prison.
But sometimes Mexico has
been reluctant to transfer sus-
pects to U.S. custody — either out
of a sense of nationalism or, per-
haps, fear of what secrets the
traffickers may reveal about offi-
cial corruption.
“El Menchito” has insisted he is
not guilty, and is not even the son
of the renowned trafficker. “In
these past five years, I’ve demon-
strated my innocence, having
been absolved in every single case
against me,” he said in a letter
published in December by the
news magazine Proceso.
[email protected]
[email protected]Jouvenal reported from Washington.‘El Menchito’ is latest
suspected cartel figure
to be extradited t o U.S.
Barr’s visit to Mexico
leads to surge in transfer
of alleged criminalsbe able to manage a $324 million
debt payment due next month.
Ritesh Shah, 41, a diamond trad-
er who purchased two apartments
in Trump To wer Mumbai, said the
biggest pull was that the building
was compliant with the principles
of Vastu, a traditional H indu system
of architecture. He s aid buyers were
originally supposed to take posses-
sion at t he end of 2018, but the delay
has not worried him. “Trump is the
only real estate brand that really
matters around the globe,” he said.
“There is no second brand.” Prices
start at $1.04 million for three-bed-
room apartments.
When reached by The Washing-
ton Post, Mangal Prabhat Lodha
declined to answer any questions,
saying, “I don’t want to talk about
it.” The company’s media represen-
tative also did not respond to re-
quests for comment.Office tower in IREO City
In 2 016, the Trump Organization
announced a partnership with
IREO, a real-estate-focused private
equity firm, to build an office tower
in the city of Gurugram — also
known as Gurgaon — just outside
the capital, New Delhi. IREO’s
founder, Lalit Goyal, is the brother-
in-law of Sudhanshu Mittal, a Del-
hi-based leader of the ruling party.
But the project ran into trouble
when IREO was accused in 2018
by two of its investors of a massive
financial fraud worth at least
$147 million. Ramesh Sanka,IREO’s former chief executive,
alerted investors to the alleged
fraud. Sanka declined to com-
ment, citing a court settlement
with IREO that bars him from
speaking to the media. P.K. Mitra,
a senior o fficial at t he Delhi Police,
said that the case was still under
investigation. “We are collecting
documents and information from
concerned agencies [and] record-
ing statements of investors and
house buyers,” he said.
It is unclear whether the Trump
partnership with IREO is still ac-
tive. On IREO’s website, the Trump
project isn’t listed. Goyal and
IREO did not respond to requests
for comment on the Trump project
and the fraud investigation.Trump Towers Delhi NCR
The Trump Organization still has
an upcoming project in Gurugram:
two 600-foot-tall towers with more
than 250 luxury apartments that
are being built at a cost of $200 mil-
lion. Construction began in 2018
and is in the preliminary stage, with
two built-up floors, according to an
update posted on the project’s web-
site.
Trump’s partners in the venture
are M3M — which stands for Mag-
nificence in the Trinity of Men,
Materials and Money — and Tribe-
ca Developers. The latter has
worked with the Trump Organiza-
tion for the past seven years, ac-
cording to its website, and helps it
identify suitable sites for Trump-branded projects in India.Trump Tower Kolkata
The latest Trump project in
India is being built in the eastern
city of Kolkata. Described as “in-
spired by the spirit of Manhattan
extravagance,” t he project report-
edly sold h alf of the available units
within two months of its launch.
Sumit Bhalotia, 37, director of
finance at K haitan & Co, said he had
no second thoughts about investing
his life savings in the property be-
cause the tower was “associated
with the president of the U.S.A.” He
said he had not known about
Trump and his business empire
before Trump became president.
In September, the developers of
the Kolkata and Gurugram residen-
tial projects organized a t hree-day
trip to New Yo rk for buyers, a trip
that they called
# livingtheTrumplife. Nearly 150
guests spent an evening at a Trump-
branded golf course in the Bronx,
where they met with Donald Trump
Jr. He had a fireside chat with
Kalpesh Mehta, Tribeca’s founder.
Working in India has been an
“amazing experience,” said Trump
Jr. “It’s a market t hat we continue to
thrive in despite everything going
on in the world.”
[email protected]
[email protected]tania dutta in new delhi and Joshua
Partlow in Washington contributed to
this report.enrico fabian for the Washington PostBY NIHA MASIH
AND JOANNA SLATERNEW DELHI — When President
Trump arrives in India on Monday,
it will be his first visit to the country
as an elected official. But as a busi-
ness executive, Trump has connec-
tions to India that stretch back
years.
India is home to the largest
portfolio of Trump real e state proj-
ects outside North America, ac-
cording to the president’s son
Donald Trump Jr., who has made
repeated trips here in r ecent years.
The ventures include four luxury
residential projects and an office
tower, all b randed with the Trump
name under licensing deals.
On his last trip to India in 2014,
Donald Trump partied with Bolly-
wood stars and praised the coun-
try’s potential. “I don’t consider this
as an emerging market, I think it’s
an amazing market,” he said in an
interview with New Delhi Te levi-
sion.
Since then, two of Trump’s busi-
ness partners in India have devel-
oped problems of their own: One is
accused of massive fraud, while the
other is facing a funding crunch.
Both of them have close ties to
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Par-
ty h eaded by Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi.
Ahead of Trump’s visit to India,
the president’s business partners
were keeping a low profile. Two of
them did not respond to requests
for comment, and two others de-
clined to comment. The Trump
Organization did not respond to
specific questions about its Indian
ventures, but Trump Jr. said he was
“incredibly proud” of the compa-
ny’s “continued success in India.”
Here’s what you need to know
about Trump’s b usiness ties in India:Trump Towers Pune
In 2014, Trump made headlines
when he flew to Pune, a major city
in western India, in his private jet
for a party with the city’s richest
people. “You could say that I’ve
brought theatrics into real estate,”
Trump said in an interview with an
Indian winner of the Miss Universe
contest.
Trump To wers Pune are twin
23-story towers with the black glass
facade associated with many
Trump properties. Prices start at
$1. 95 million for 4,400-square-foot
apartments, according to the devel-
oper, Panchshil Realty. The firm is
owned by two brothers, Atul and
Sagar Chordia. They ran into con-
troversy following a meeting with
Trump at Trump To wer i n New York
soon after he was elected president,
raising concerns about Trump’s
continuing involvement in busi-
ness decisions.
In 2018, Donald Trump Jr. came
to India to inaugurate the second
tower when it was completed. Atul
Chordia told a local news agency
that his experience working with
the Trump Organization had been
one of “great satisfaction.”Trump Tower Mumbai
Rising in the heart of India’s
financial capital is the 75-story
Trump To wer Mumbai, which
promises a private jet service to its
buyers. The promoter is Macrotech
Developers, founded by Mangal
Prabhat Lodha, reportedly the rich-
est real estate developer in India
and a state lawmaker from the
ruling party.
Now run by his son Abhishek
Lodha, Macrotech is reeling under
a large debt burden. In September,
it laid off nearly 400 employees.
Late last year, ratings agencies Fitch
and Moody’s d owngraded the firm’s
bonds to junk status and said it was
unclear whether Macrotech wouldIn India, Trump ventures a re widespread
Country is home to largest portfolio of the company’s real estate projects outside North America
Workers
stand next to
a rendering of
a future unit
in 2017 at a
Trump-linked
project in the
Indian city of
Gurugram.
One project
there ran into
trouble when
a partner was
accused of
fraud. Work
on another
began in
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