Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Wednesday that he would consider the request for the repatriation of ex-drug lord Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, who complains about his conditions of detention on American soil. A letter was sent by his lawyers to the Mexican ambassador to the United States.
“When it comes to human rights, there are international bodies,” said the Mexican president during his daily press conference. “You always have to keep the door open when it comes to human rights.”
Guzman, 65, said he was undergoing “psychological torment” in the super-high security prison in Florence, in the deserted mountains of Colorado. It was there that he was serving a life sentence for drug trafficking, money laundering and the use of firearms.
One of his lawyers, José Refugio Rodriguez, told theFrance Media Agency that he wanted Guzman to “return to Mexico” to stand trial and serve his sentence in a local prison. Among other things, he mentioned the existence of “penitentiary conventions” between Mexico and the United States.
The grievances of the “Chapo” come after the arrest of one of his sons, Ovidio Guzman, on January 5 in the state of Sinaloa (north-west) during an operation which left 29 dead (10 soldiers and 19 suspected criminals according to the authorities).
Guzman, relentless leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, escaped twice in 2001 and 2015 from Mexican prisons. Arrested again in Mexico in January 2016, he was extradited to the United States in 2017.
On July 18, 2019, he was found guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and the use of firearms by a court in New York.
In the same Brooklyn court, the trial for cocaine trafficking of Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexican Minister of Security between 2006 and 2012, began on Tuesday.
Mr. Garcia Luna is accused of having accepted bribes to protect the Sinaloa cartel from the “Chapo”.
The Mexican president described this trial as “very important” and wanted it to reveal whether the American authorities were aware of the links between Garcia Luna and the drug traffickers.