MEXICO CITY (AP) – The once-secretive Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has launched a public relations blitz, calling on his lawyers and even his common-law wife to keep his name in the news.
Emma Coronel, mother of Guzman’s twin 4-year-old daughters, has given unprecedented media interviews, issuing dire warnings about his health and pressuring the government to improve the conditions he endures his third time behind bars.
His lawyers have gathered the media at Mexico’s supreme court and outside the White House in Washington. On Friday, one of Guzman’s lawyers called a news conference outside the maximum-security Altiplano prison where he’s being held, and which he escaped from through a mile-long tunnel in July.
Wearing an “Extradition Never!!!” sweat shirt emblazoned with a photo of his client, attorney Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza said he planned to begin a hunger strike – water and juice allowed. He called on Mexicans to join him.
Analysts say the publicity is all part of a carefully planned media strategy.