Mexico’s national security commissioner insisted Tuesday that drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s health is fine after the kingpin’s common-law wife filed a complaint saying he’s faring poorly behind bars.
Commissioner Renato Sales told Imagen Radio that Guzman is isolated from other prisoners, but receives visits from his family and lawyers.
“He is not subject to torture of course, nor degrading or inhuman treatment,” Sales said. He says Guzman’s common-law wife Emma Coronel has visited the drug lord 35 times, along with his daughters and sisters.
Rights complaint filed
On Monday, Coronel filed a complaint with Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission complaining about Guzman’s alleged treatment in prison.
Coronel is the mother of twin daughters with Guzman. She told local media Monday outside the commission’s Mexico City office that she had just filed the complaint charging that Guzman suffers from declining health because of the conditions of his confinement.
Guzman’s lawyer in Ciudad Juarez, Silvia Delgado is concerned about Guzman’s mental health because his head hurts and he is experiencing memory loss, Delgado told Spanish news agency Agencia EFE.
Guzman’s short-term memory is increasingly diminished, Delgado said, and prison officials are only giving him one-fourth of the anti-anxiety medication doctors have prescribed.
Coronel has filed complaints before to pressure the government to improve conditions for the Sinaloa cartel’s leader.
Extradition appeals rejected
Guzman was arrested in January after escaping from a maximum-security prison last year. He is fighting extradition to the U.S. from the northern border state of Chihuahua.
A judge last week rejected five appeals Guzman filed to avoid extradition. He can still ask a higher court to review the judge’s rejection.
Sales also suggested that Guzman’s cartel, and even one of his brothers who was not named, was responsible for an ambush in Culiacan at the end of September that killed five soldiers.
“The investigation points to people close to this person,” Sales said.
