Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman begs AMLO pull him out of US prison
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Convicted drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is whining about the “cruel and unfair” conditions at his high-security US prison — and is begging authorities in Mexico to move him to friendlier confines in his native land.
The notorious narco-trafficker, who was extradited to the US in 2017 and is locked up at a super-max federal prison in Colorado, is pleading with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to pull some strings and get him back home, Mexico News Daily reported.
Guzman’s lawyer said things are so bad that when his client had a toothache, prison staffers just yanked his teeth.
“He doesn’t see the sun, the food is of very bad quality, there is no health care,” attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez told reporters.
“He had a problem with his molars and instead of treating them, they took them out so he wouldn’t fuss,” Rodriguez said, according to the outlet. “He is hurting in a trial that was not in accordance with due process.”
Guzman, who was given a life sentence in 2019, is kept in isolation and has only been allowed a half-dozen phone calls since March 2022, his lawyer said, calling the restrictions “physical torture” for the one-time Sinaloa cartel boss.
Rodriguez said he considers Guzman’s pleas “an SOS” for help.
So far, they’re falling on deaf ears: Lopez Obrador shot them down at a press conference Tuesday, the report said.
The story was first reported by Spanish-language outlets Infobae and El Financiero.
Guzman, once one of the most feared and vicious of Central America’s narcotraffickers, had his bid to overturn his federal conviction shot down last year.
Earlier this month, his jailed oldest son, Ovidio Guzman-Lopez, was moved to a maximum-security prison in Mexico after his arrest triggered an outbreak of gang violence.
Nicknamed “El Raton,” or “The Mouse,” the younger Guzman, 32, is believed to have been among those who took over the reins of his father’s drug empire.
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