Page 11 - atoday
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Monday 7 March 2016
Team for Mexican drug lord ‘El Chapo’ launches PR blitz
C. SHERMAN Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, center, one of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s lawyers, holds a press stop, he is going to get sick
Associated Press conference outside the gates of the Altiplano maximum security prison to announce he would and his life is at great risk.”
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The begin a hunger strike in protest over the drug lord’s treatment inside the prison, near Toluca, Mex- Outside the prison Friday,
once-secretive Mexican ico state, Mexico. The once-secretive Mexican drug lord has launched a public relations blitz, Bernarda Guzman Loera,
drug lord Joaquin “El Cha- calling on his lawyers and even his common-law wife to keep his name in the news. who said she was one of
po” Guzman has launched the drug lord’s sisters, said
a public relations blitz, call- (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) his family was “very wor-
ing on his lawyers and even ried.”
his common-law wife to in the United States should fort will work. careful to suggest his inno- The drug lord’s lawyers
keep his name in the news. moves to extradite him suc- “El Chapo’s folks are grasp- cence, or at least not con- have filed several requests
Emma Coronel, mother of ceed. ing at straws,” he said. “I firm his guilt. for injunctions in Mexi-
Guzman’s twin 4-year-old Another Guzman attorney, doubt the U.S. will negoti- “I’m not certain that he can courts to stop his ex-
daughters, has given un- Jose Refugio Rodriguez, ate on any level.” traffics drugs,” she said. tradition. Rodriguez said
precedented media inter- says that the drug lord The PR campaign has fea- Guzman’s attorneys have Wednesday they won’t
views, issuing dire warnings wants to be sent to the U.S tured Guzman’s former publicly expressed concern drop those efforts until they
about his health and pres- quickly and negotiate a beauty queen common- for his health and criticized get an agreement with U.S.
suring the government to guilty plea in exchange for law wife giving her first-ever his treatment while jailed. prosecutors, an unrealistic
improve the conditions he a “reasonable” sentence public interview in Febru- “How long is his body go- scenario.
endures his third time be- in a medium-security prison ary. Conservatively dressed ing to tolerate this state of Things were a lot different
hind bars. in the United States. and poised throughout her stress that he’s submitted for Guzman the last time
His lawyers have gathered Samuel Logan of the busi- conversation with Telemun- to?” Rodriguez said last he was in prison, after be-
the media at Mexico’s su- ness and security consult- do, Coronel painted an month after a 30-minute ing captured the second
preme court and outside ing firm Southern Pulse said image of “El Chapo” as a visit at Altiplano prison with time in 2014. Mexico’s
the White House in Wash- he doesn’t believe the ef- loving family man. She was Guzman. “If this doesn’t then-attorney general said
ington. This weekend, one the drug chieftain would
of Guzman’s lawyers called only be extradited to the
a news conference out- U.S. “in 300 or 400 years”
side the maximum-security after serving his Mexican
Altiplano prison where he’s sentence. In a recent court
being held, and which he filing shared by his lawyers,
escaped from through a Guzman described a rela-
mile-long tunnel in July. tively permissive environ-
Wearing an “Extradition ment with plenty of ac-
Never!!!” sweat shirt em- cess by outside visitors and
blazoned with a photo of some freedom to move
his client, attorney Jose around. “Half a year ago I
Luis Gonzalez Meza said he was in this place and had
planned to begin a hunger a daily visit of an hour and
strike — water and juice al- a half with my defense at-
lowed. He called on Mexi- torney,” Guzman said in
cans to join him. the filing, plus “a four-hour
Analysts say the public- family visit every nine days
ity is all part of a carefully and a four-hour intimate
planned media strategy. (conjugal) visit every nine
At the very least, Guzman days, a daily hour on the
hopes to negotiate the patio to go out and walk in
terms of his imprisonment the sun.”
