Notorious drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo‘ Guzman has appealed to Mexico‘s president for help due to alleged ‘psychological torment’ he is suffering in a US prison, his lawyer said Tuesday.
‘In the six years that Joaquin has been in the United States, he has not seen the sun,’ said Jose Refugio Rodriguez, a Mexico-based legal representative of the Sinaloa cartel founder.
Guzman, 64, was sentenced to life behind bars in the United States for a drug conspiracy that spread murder and mayhem for more than two decades, and is serving out the sentence at ADX Florence in Colorado.
His message to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, described as ‘an SOS,’ was transmitted via one of Guzman’s lawyers in the United States as well as his family, Rodriguez said.
Notorious drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman (seen in 2017) has appealed to Mexico’s president for help due to alleged ‘psychological torment’ he is suffering in a US prison
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday his government will consider Guzman’s plea to serve out the remainder of his sentence in Mexico
Guzman is only allowed outside three times a week to a small area where he ‘doesn’t get the sun,’ and has fewer visits or phone calls than other inmates, the lawyer said in an interview with Radio Formula.
‘He is suffering psychological torment,’ he said, adding that the lack of sunshine was also bad for the convicted drug trafficker’s physical health.
Guzman wants President Obrador to address alleged procedural violations during his extradition in 2017 under the former government, Rodriguez added.
Mexico’s president said Wednesday his government will consider Guzman’s plea to serve out the remainder of his sentence in Mexico, where the drug kingpin twice escaped from prison.
Obrador said ‘we will review it,’ adding: ‘You always have to keep the door open when it comes to human rights.’
Guzman, 64, was sentenced to life behind bars in the United States, and is serving out the sentence at ADX Florence in Colorado, seen above
A cell with concrete furniture is seen inside the ADX (administrative maximum) Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado where Guzman is serving a life sentence
Inside the same room inmates have a toilet, sink, and miniature mirror
The US and Mexico have a prison transfer agreement that allows inmates convicted in one country to serve out their sentence in their home country under certain circumstances.
But given Guzman’s crimes, his sentence and the risks he purportedly still poses, many doubt the agreement would apply in his case.
The Mexican embassy in Washington confirmed on Twitter on Tuesday that it received an email from Rodríguez on January 10.
Without referring to the content of the email, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard downplayed the chance of any government intercession in favor of the notorious drug trafficker.
‘He is serving a sentence there, he has a sentence,’ he told journalists. ‘So, frankly I don’t see any possibilities for him, but I’m going to review it with the prosecutor’s office.’
An outdoor area of the notorious ADX Florence prison is pictured above. Guzman’s attorneys say he is allowed outdoors three times per week in an area with no direct sunlight
The exterior of the Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado, located 90 miles south of Denver
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in the United States after being convicted in 2019 of charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses.
One of his sons, Ovidio Guzman, was arrested by Mexican security forces this month in an operation that left 29 people dead and sparked a dramatic shootout at an airport in the city of Culiacan.
The Joaquin Guzman is serving his life sentence at ADX Florence, a 490-bed ‘supermax’ jail in the middle of Colorado – also known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies.
It is America’s most secure prison from which nobody has ever escaped, making it a fitting resting place for the cartel kingpin who sprung himself from Mexican jailhouses not once, but twice.
In 2001, Guzman bribed Mexican prison guards in a complex scheme to escape by hiding in a laundry cart.
In 2015, Guzman slipped away from a central Mexico prison through a nearly mile-long tunnel leading from his cell’s shower, in his second dramatic prison escape.
Emma Coronel, the wife of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán is serving a three-year sentence at a prison in Texas
It’s not the first time El Chapo’s lawyers have raised issue with over conditions at ADX Florence.
Last March, his attorney Mariel Colón told Mexican network Milenio that Guzman’s rights have been violated by the staff at ADX Florence.
‘They don’t take him out into the open air, they don’t take him out for a single day,’ Colón claimed. ‘We’ve had a lot of problems because they don’t treat him medically if he gets sick. The requests are ignored.’
The high-profile lawyer, who also represented El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel before she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison in November 2021, said the Sinaloa Cartel co-founder has been denied access to water and dental treatment for his molars.
Guzmán also complained about the strict conditions that he encountered in a Manhattan jail following his extradition from Mexico to the United States in January 2017.
Up until the end of his trial, he spent his entire time at the Manhattan Metropolitan Center and grumbled over drinking tap water and requested bottled water. He also complained that the cell was too cold.