Mexico President to consider request for Chapo Guzmans return

Mexico: President to consider request for “Chapo” Guzman’s return

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday he would consider the repatriation request of ex-drug lord Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, who is complaining about his prison conditions in the United States.

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“When it comes to human rights, there are international bodies,” the Mexican president said during his daily press conference. “When it comes to human rights, you always have to keep the door open.”

Guzman, 65, said he suffered “mental torment” at the maximum-security prison in Florence in the deserted mountains of Colorado.

He is serving a life sentence there for drug trafficking, money laundering and the use of firearms.

His letter was forwarded by his lawyers to the Mexican Ambassador to the United States.

One of his lawyers, José Refugio Rodriguez, told AFP he wanted Guzman “to return to Mexico” to stand trial and serve his sentence at a local jail.

He mentioned the existence of “penal conventions” between Mexico and the United States.

The complaints of the “Chapo” come after the arrest of one of his sons, Ovidio Guzman, on 5 authorities).

Guzman, relentless leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, escaped from Mexican prisons twice, in 2001 and 2015. Arrested again in Mexico in January 2016, he was extradited to the United States in 2017.

On July 18, 2019, a New York court found him guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and use of firearms.

The cocaine trafficking trial of Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s security minister from 2006 to 2012, began Tuesday in the same Brooklyn court.

Mr Garcia Luna is accused of taking bribes to protect the Sinaloa cartel from the “Chapo”.

The Mexican President described this process as “very important” and wanted to uncover whether the American authorities were aware of the links between Garcia Luna and the drug dealers.