Inmate Letter 89914053: 'El Chapo' Wants Company

"Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from EL PAÍS

Sinaloa Cartel leader asks Judge Brian Cogan to authorize visit from Emma Coronel and the two daughters he has with former beauty queen

written by: LUIS PABLO BEAUREGARD 

El Chapo Guzman is alone. The Sinaloa Cartel leader has been locked up in the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, for four years. This week he asked Judge Brian Cogan for permission to be visited in prison by Emma Coronel and his two minor daughters. In a handwritten letter, the 66-year-old drug trafficker asked the judge to consider the request once his wife is released on parole on September 13. The influencer and former beauty queen, Guzman's third marriage, was granted house arrest last June and has since been in a Los Angeles residence preparing her for her return to freedom. "From that date on, she will be able to travel all over the country, since she will have probation," El Chapo argues.

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Guzmán affirms in his letter that the prosecutors in the case had opposed the criminal to meet with Coronel during his trial in New York some years ago. The prosecution's argument was that the wife of the leader of the criminal organization could help him intimidate witnesses who testified against him during the historic trial. "Something absurd, since everything that is said during a visit is recorded and, besides, there are cameras," writes the drug lord, who refers to himself at times in the third person. That fear has been extinguished, since "Guzman has already been sentenced" and "there is not even a hearing (sic). Guzman, however, has another drug trafficking trial pending in Chicago.

El Chapo not only asks Cogan for Coronel's presence, but also for the daughters he has with her, Guadalupe and María Joaquina. "They are studying in Mexico and can only travel to visit their father on vacations, two or three times a year at the most," he says. The children are 12 years old and have U.S. citizenship, since they were born in Los Angeles. Guzman says his mother and siblings cannot visit him in Colorado because they do not have a visa to enter the United States.

Martha Dhanis on twitter "former Mexican druglord ‘El Chapo’ letter from prison asking “favor” from judge to allow his wife, who's getting probation soon, to visit him.  original handwritten letter in Spanish and envelope + translated version:" -@MarthaDhanis

The office received the document on Wednesday and made it public this Friday. This is not the first communication the judge has received from one of his most famous sentenced prisoners. A few weeks ago, Guzman wrote to him to complain about the prison authorities, who keep him and the other 320 inmates under strict surveillance in their cells and with only one hour a day in the open air. The capo claims that the warden does not allow him to receive documents for his defense. "They always use the excuse that it's because Guzman escaped from a prison in Mexico," said the criminal, who has called it "ridiculous."

Guzman, however, did not just escape from a prison in his native country. He made a fool of prison authorities, and two different governments in the process, by escaping from Mexico's two strictest detention centers. The first time was 2001 under President Vicente Fox and the second in 2015 under Enrique Peña Nieto, after carrying out a movie-like escape. U.S. authorities do not rule out that Guzman's communication with his lawyers is aimed at plotting a new attempt. No one has escaped from the Colorado Supermax since it began operations in 1994. The facility is known as the Alcatraz of the Rocky Mountains.

Since 2021, the criminal had reported being the victim of "cruel and unjust treatment" since his extradition to the United States in 2017. The capo noted in the letter that the imprisonment was affecting him physically and mentally, causing him "headaches," memory loss, cramps and depression. "I have suffered a lot," the kingpin, who is serving a life sentence with an added 30 years in prison, said at the time. In addition, Cogan ordered him to pay $12 billion in damages to his company.

In another letter made public in March, Guzman again complained about the harsh conditions of his solitary confinement. In three pages, in addition to requesting some benefits in his trial, the criminal claimed that the authorities have only allowed him nine calls with his lawyer over the course of a year. He considered it highly discriminatory. On that occasion, El Chapo apologized to the judge for not sending his communication earlier. It took more than a month to get a postage stamp for the letter to leave the inmate's cell 89914053 and go to the outside world.

Source: EL PAÍS