AMLO considers El Chapo request to serve sentence in Mexico instead of U.S.

Drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman begged Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to help move him from a U.S. prison to a Mexican one. In response, AMLO said on Wednesday that he would consider El Chapo’s plea. 

Guzman, 64, was extradited to the United States in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for drug conspiracy over two decades. He is currently being held in isolation at a super-maximum security prison in Colorado.

According to the Mexican lawyer who represents the drug lord, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, El Chapo has been living in “cruel and unfair” conditions since he was booked into prison. The narco, he claims, does not have adequate access to sunlight, is not allowed visitors, is not given good food, and is not provided with medical care. 

"In the six years that Joaquin has been in the United States, he has not seen the sun," said Rodriguez, adding that his client was suffering “psychological torment.”

“He had a problem with his molars and instead of treating them, they took them out so he wouldn’t fuss,” Rodriguez said. “He is hurting in a trial that was not in accordance with due process.”

The Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C. received an email from Rodriguez asking to move El Chapo to a prison in Mexico with better conditions. The embassy said it turned over the issue to Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department. 

“We will review it,” said President Lopez Obrador. “You always have to keep the door open when it comes to human rights.”

However, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard did not seem enthusiastic about any government intercession on behalf of the 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."