Beauty-Queen Wife of El Chapo Says She Fears for Her Husband's Life in Jail
>Where He is Being 'Punished' by Prison Guards
- Emma Coronel Aispuro said Altiplano jail guards are 'punishing' El Chapo
- Said he is constantly watched by guards, even while using the bathroom
- Aispuro fears he is not eating well and is not being allowed to sleep
- El Chapo said this week that he is turning into a 'zombie' because guards will not let him to sleep for more than two hours at a time
- He is waiting to find out if he will be extradited to the U.S. on drugs charges
Daily Mail UK, 20 February 2016
Emma Coronel Aispuro, who married El Chapo in 2007 when she was 18 (left) and he was 47, says guards at the Altiplano jail near Mexico City are 'punishing' her husband for his previous escape. Aispuro complained that guards are watching El Chapo (in his cell, right) all day and will not give him privacy, even to go to the bathroom.
She also fears he is not eating well, and is not being allowed to sleep after the Sinaloa Cartel boss complained to his lawyers that guards have been waking him up every two hours. El Chapo, real name Joaquin Guzman, said he is being subjected to 'physical and mental torture'.
The third wife of cartel kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman says she fears for his life in jail after reports of harsh treatment at the hands of prison guards.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, who married El Chapo in 2007 when she was 18 and he was 47, said guards at Altiplano jail where the Sinaloa cartel boss is being kept are punishing him for escaping.
Aispuro said: 'They say they are not punishing him, of course they are. They are with him all day, watching him in his cell.
Emma Coronel Aispuro
Aispuro complained that the Sinaloa Cartel boss is constantly watched by guards and is not allowed any privacy, even while using the bathroom
'They are there every hour, they will not let him sleep and give him no privacy, even to go to the bathroom. I think every person has the right to have at least the vital things that make them human.'
Addressing El Chapo directly, she added: 'I fear for your life, I do not know if you are eating well. In general, we do not know what the situation is because we have not been allowed to seen him.
Her comments came days after it was reported that El Chapo is being turned into a 'zombie' by prison guards who will not let him sleep for more than two hours at a time.The drug baron's lawyer, Juan Pablo Badillo, said that El Chapo feels he is the victim of 'physical and mental torture'.
Aispuro, a former beauty queen, also says she is worried her husband is not eating well and is being 'punished' for his previous escape
El Chapo allegedly told Mr Badillo: 'They are turning me into a zombie, they won't let me sleep, now there is nothing else I want but for them to let me sleep.'
The drugs lord had been serving a sentence at the prison when he escaped in July 2015 through a 1.2-mile tunnel which his cartel members dug from nearby land.
With suspected help from the inside, he managed to climb through the bottom of his shower where there happened to be a blind spot in the cell.
He was recaptured last month after seven months on the run.
The authorities took him back to the maximum security jail the Altiplano prison in central Mexico while he waits to see if he will be extradited to the U.S. on drug trafficking charges.
However, since his recapture, the authorities are taking no chances of him escaping again.
The jail has reportedly installed 400 new cameras and they hope to add another 600 to that by April.
According to local media reports, motion sensors also sense his every move, dogs have been trained to detect his scent, steel rods reinforce the floor and metal detectors stand outside the door.
But according to his lawyer, what most concerns him is lack of sleep.
Mr Badillo added: 'He describes it as a brutal torture, it is similar to what they did to Stalin in the 40s and 50s in Russia.'
Mexican officials have said their main concern is making sure Guzman does not escape again before his extradition to the United States to face charges there.
Last week, it was reported that he was willing to plead guilty in the United States - as long as he is not jailed in a maximum-security prison.
The Sinaloa cartel leader believes he would enjoy better treatment in an American cell compared to the 'extreme freezing conditions' of his current Mexican lock-up where he 'fears for his life'.
However, he will only plead guilty if US prosecutors promise to spare him from its most brutal institutions 'where he would not see the light of the sun for more than an hour a day'.
Earlier this week El Chapo said he is being turned into a 'zombie' by guards who will not let him sleep for more than two hours at a time (pictured being recaptured in January this year)
El Chapo has told his lawyer Juan Pablo Badillo, pictured, that he is the victim of 'physical and mental torture'
Another lawyer José Refugio Rodríguez told Univision earlier this month:
'I fear for his life.
'If anyone is subjected to such cold temperatures - so cold, extremely cold - they could get very sick.
'We are going to work the extradition so that the United States doesn't find a man on his knees, begging for help.
But Mr Badillo added he did not have much time to talk about possible extradition to the U.S. with El Chapo during a prison visit on Monday.
The lawyer told CNN El Chapo said:
'"We have to talk about it. But I want to be judged by Mexican laws."