USA Today - 02.03.2020

Bernie Sanders holds a command-

ing double-digit lead on the cusp of

California’s Democratic primary, a

new Suffolk University/USA TODAY

statewide poll finds, giving the Ver-

mont senator the prospect of cap-

turing the lion’s share of the largest

trove of convention delegations in the

country on Super Tuesday.

Sanders was at 35% among likely

Democratic primary voters, well ahead

of former New York mayor Mike

Bloomberg at 16%, former vice presi-

dent Joe Biden at 14% and Massachu-

setts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 12%.

The survey, taken Wednesday

through Saturday by landline and cell-

Vermont senator’s lead in California

has him in prime position, poll says

Susan Page

USA TODAY

USA TODAY

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Super Tuesday offers Democratic

hopefuls a big delegate haul

Candidates are trying to secure a

majority of pledged delegates, or

1,991, to clinch the nomination.

TOTAL:

3,

delegates

62%

2,

delegates

in contests

March 10-

June 6

1,

delegates

up for grabs

on Super

Tuesday

34%

4%

155 delegates

in February’s

primaries and

caucuses

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Biometrics, speech patterns, even how we type

promise more foolproof verification. In Money

Everything looks all right

for ‘Not Okay With This’

Netflix’s zippy new teen supernatural series

has loads of charisma, Kelly Lawler writes. In Life

Game on:

Get a jump

on March

Madness

As conference tourneys

begin, see our players

to watch, giant-killers,

Final Four sleepers and

sure-to-shock upsets.

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BY USA TODAY SPORTS

LOS ANGELES – The gunmen were

waiting for Enrique Camarena. They

positioned themselves on the streets

surrounding his office at the U.S. Con-

sulate in Guadalajara, Mexico, ready to

block the young federal agent if he

tried to escape.

The men, who worked for one of

Mexico’s most powerful

drug cartels, forced Ca-

marena into their car

and drove him to a

cramped guest house

nearby, where he was

beaten, burned and

eventually killed.

The highly publicized

abduction and murder in 1985 was one

of the darkest moments in U.S. Drug

Enforcement Administration history

and provided the plot for the Netflix se-

ries “Narcos: Mexico.” More than three

decades later, U.S. authorities are in-

vestigating potentially explosive new

evidence in the case: allegations that

Camarena was betrayed.

U.S. Justice Department agents and

prosecutors obtained statements from

witnesses implicating a Central In-

telligence Agency operative and a DEA

official in the plot to torture and mur-

der Camarena, according to the wit-

nesses, Camarena’s widow and others

familiar with the case who were inter-

viewed by USA TODAY.

The inquiry inserts the Justice De-

partment into a chapter of the 1980s

drug war that the government had long

dismissed as a myth – claims that the

U.S. government entangled itself with

drug traffickers as officials in the Rea-

gan administration illegally armed re-

bels fighting the socialist government

in Nicaragua.

Whether anything comes of the in-

vestigation remains uncertain, but the

allegations were too alarming to ig-

nore, officials said.

Prosecutors and agents confirmed

to Camarena’s widow, Mika, that wit-

nesses provided the accounts alleged-

ly connecting the CIA operative and

DEA official to the plot, she said in an

interview. They told her they were in-

vestigating the claim, but she said they

did not provide details.

“I want the truth to be out,” Mika

See BETRAYED, Page 6A

USA TODAY INVESTIGATION

Witnesses:

‘Narcos’

agent was

betrayed

Feds reexamine infamous

1985 drug cartel slaying

Brad Heath

USA TODAY

Camarena

“There is too many ghosts

behind me. We need to

make justice.”

George Godoy,former cartel security guard

WASHINGTON – Fresh off a blow-

out victory in South Carolina, former

Vice President Joe Biden has momen-

tum at his back.

But with Super Tuesday a day away,

Sen. Bernie Sanders is looking to ex-

tend his lead in national pledged dele-

gates while political watchers wonder:

Does Biden have the fuel to catch up?

Biden’s victory Saturday shook up

what has already been a roller coaster

of a February, with at times two lead-

ers in national delegates, six candi-

dates who have earned a top 3 finish in

at least one state, and an unprecedent-

ed recount in the Iowa caucuses. For-

mer South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete

Buttigieg ended his presidential bid

Sunday, a day after a disappointing

finish in South Carolina. And there’s

still one more X-factor.

Voters on Super Tuesday will find

former New York Mayor Mike Bloom-

berg on ballots nationwide for the first

time. The results could reveal whether

ELECTION 2020 SUPER TUESDAY PREVIEW

Biden and Sanders

on collision course

Bernie Sanders is eight delegates ahead of Joe Biden.JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY

After big win in SC, former VP gets

boost; Buttigieg, Steyer drop out

Bart Jansen

USA TODAY Democratic delegates

SOURCE: AP Elections Group

After four contests, Sen. Bernie

Sanders leads in delegates needed to

secure the Democratic nomination.

Bernie Sanders^58

NOTE Data as of 7 p.m. March 1

1,

Pete Buttigieg* 26

Joe Biden 50

Elizabeth Warren^8

Amy Klobuchar 7

Mike Bloomberg 0

* Dropped out March 1.

See DELEGATES, Page 4A

The United States and the Taliban
signed a historic agreement over the
weekend that could bring an end to
America’s longest war and allow the
withdrawal of troops from Afghani-
stan within 14 months.
The pact, signed Saturday, also sets
the stage for further negotiations be-
tween Afghanistan’s government and
the Taliban, a militant Islamist group
that once ruled the country and pro-
vided safe haven to Osama bin Laden.
U.S. officials hope those talks will lead
to a power-sharing agreement.
But a permanent peace rests on a
commitment by the Taliban, to end its
deadly attacks on U.S. forces and to
renounce its ties to al-Qaida.
“This is a hopeful moment, but it’s
only the beginning,” Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo said. “There’s a great
deal of hard work ahead.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
attends the signing ceremony in
Qatar. KARIM JAAFAR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

US hopeful

after signing

Taliban pact

USA TODAY

Full story on 3A

See CALIFORNIA, Page 4A

A “boom” of confirmed cases of the
coronavirus that has killed almost
3,000 people around the world could al-
ready be racing across the U.S. despite
ramped-up efforts to contain the out-
break, experts say.
The spread of the virus by “commu-
nity transmissions is an indication that

we could indeed be looking at the tip of

the iceberg,” Ogbonnaya Omenka, an

assistant professor and public health

specialist at Butler University’s College

of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, told

USA TODAY on Sunday.

Though fewer than 80 U.S. cases

have been confirmed thus far, including

a handful in Washington state, a re-

US boom ‘should be expected’

Travelers wearing

protective masks make

their way through

O’Hare International

Airport in Chicago on

Sunday. The U.S.

surgeon general and the

CDC say healthy people

should not wear masks

to protect themselves

from respiratory

diseases.

NAM Y. HUH/AP

Experts assess new coronavirus cases

John Bacon
USA TODAY

See CORONAVIRUS, Page 6A