“I have suffered a lot”: all the times that “El Chapo” Guzmán asked for mercy since he was imprisoned

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loerabetter known as “El Chapo”, asked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for help through his former lawyer for the “psychological torment” who claimed to suffer in the United States prison where he is serving a sentence of life imprisonment, and for which he hopes to be repatriated to Mexico.

This is not the first time that the drug trafficker has claimed to be a victim of ill-treatment both in his country and in the United States. On more than one occasion he has tried to change his prison conditions.

“In the six years that Joaquín has been in the United States, he has not seen the sun.“, said the lawyer for “Chapo” in Mexico, José Refugio Rodríguez, who received the “verbal” message from Guzmán Loera through Mariel Colón, one of his legal representatives in the United States.

“He is suffering psychological torment and to a certain extent physical because he did not put him out in the sun (…) generates a deterioration of your health, that deterioration can lead to you losing your life prematurely”, warned Refugio Rodríguez

He also explained that the drug dealer is not allowed to communicate with other inmates and that the guards are prohibited from speaking to him in Spanish. He also pointed out that the Mexican authorities are obliged to monitor their prison conditions, according to agreements with the United States.

Rodríguez described, in an email sent to the Mexican Embassy in the United States, the capo’s claim “like an SOS of someone who swims in the sea drowning and looks for a piece of wood to hold on to”.

In said email, the lawyer also explained the reasons why he considers that the handing over of Joaquín Guzmán to US authorities would have violated the extradition treaty between the two countries.

He argued that based on article 17 of said treaty,an extradited person shall not be detained, prosecuted or punished in the territory of the requesting Party for an offense other than that for which extradition was granted”.

In this sense, Refugio Rodríguez stated that the delivery of El Chapo to the US “it was evidently extradition treaty violation and specifically to the specialty rule”.

The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, revealed this Wednesday, January 18, that “does not rule out” support the request for help from “Chapo” Guzmán.

“When it comes to human rights, there are ways and there are international instances, so it is not to be ruled out because the main human right is the right to life, so any person must be guaranteed that right,” said the president in his morning conference.

This matter alreadyit is being dealt with by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, confirmed the president.

“The person in charge of North America is already looking at this matter and yes we are going to review it (…) We just have to see if it is appropriate or not, if we have, as (Foreign Minister) Marcelo (Ebrard) mentions, we have the possibility of doing it”, the Mexican president expanded.

“You always have to leave the door open when it comes to human rights”commented López Obrador, despite the criminal record of Guzmán, former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“All of this is very controversial, we already know that, but we cannot say ‘no’ like that, we have to argue”, he concluded.

It is not the first time that Chapo Guzmán has tried to make a public appeal for the circumstances in which he lives in the maximum security prison in Colorado, ADMAX.

In September 2021, he sent an affidavit, written in the first person, to the attorney general merrick garlandto the director of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), michael carvajaland US officials.

The former leader of the Sinloa Cartel said he suffered depression, hunger, sleep disturbances, headaches, memory loss, muscle cramps and stress.

He even complained that the treatment he receives there is “cruel and unfair”, in addition to the fact that “he has suffered a lot” because they serve him little food and he usually stays hungry.

Guzmán, who earlier escaped through a tunnel from a maximum-security prison in Mexico, said he is now under “constant checks inside his cellsurveillance cameras even in the place where he talks with his legal defenders and a meticulous analysis of the letters he has written, are some of the measures that the government takes to prevent him from escaping.

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