In a new attempt to overturn his lifelong sentence, drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán continues trying to be extradited back to Mexico after spending the last eight years in the U.S. prison system. And now he's got a small ray of hope.
Just last October, El Chapo ditched his legal team claiming they were "inefficient" and started representing himself in an attempt to change some of the conditions of his confinement, such as requesting more time outside of his cell and visitation rights for his wife Emma Coronel.
But as Infobae Mexico reports, the Sinaloa cartel co-founder is now also exploring all legal avenues that would take him back to Mexico, where he would like to serve his sentence.
Guzmán has long complained about violations to his rights, describing his confinement as "great torture." But after eight years behind bars in a U.S. maximum security prison, a federal court granted an injunction to El Chapo that will lead a judge to explore the possibility of him returning to Mexico.
According to the outlet, the protection was granted by a federal court after Mexico's Ministry Of Foreign Affairs (SRE) formally rejected El Chapo's petition back in January 2023. Although the petition was granted, the court did not approve a suspension to the case, which meant the Mexican government was not obliged to reconsider Guzmán Loera's extradition nor to take immediate action.
The outlet added that trial to settle his extradition could take more than a year and that chances of El Chapo getting his wish granted are slim. His defense argues that El Chapo has the right to serve his sentence in Mexico based on a treaty between Mexico and the U.S. signed in 1977 that facilitates the transfer of prisoners between the two countries for the execution of their sentences.
The former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, who has remained in U.S. custody at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado since 2019, has demanded attention from the Mexican government in several occasions over the conditions he is subjected to in the US.
According to José Refugio Núñez, one of El Chapo's attorneys, the drug lord has only been able to receive three letters and have six visits in the eight years he has been imprisoned in the U.S. In an interview with Mexican news outlet Radio Fórmula, Núñez added that his client is in solitary confinement and without access to natural light.
"He does not know about laws but he knows about suffering. If he was treated badly here in Mexico and he wants to come back, it is because treatment in the U.S. is much worse," he said.
When El Chapo's legal team first explored the possibility of requesting a transfer back in January 2023, then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said his administration would consider it.
"When it comes to human rights, there are international channels and instances. So we can't rule this out because the main human right is the right to life. We have to see if this can go forward or not, if we have...the possibility, the power to do so," he said.
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