Wife of cartel kingpin 'El Chapo' says she's 'afraid for his life'

Emma Coronel Aispuro.
(Image credit: Twitter.com/ElDebate)

He stands accused of heading the cartel responsible for trafficking 1.8 million pounds of cocaine to the U.S. and other countries over the course of a decade, plus torture, kidnappings, and murder, but Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, says her husband is a doting family man who is "not violent, not rude."

El Chapo famously escaped from prison last year, and has been in solitary confinement at the El Altiplano prison in Mexico since his recapture last month. "They want to make him pay for his escape," Coronel said. "They say they are not punishing him. Of course they are. They are there with him, watching him in his cell." Coronel said officials won't let him "sleep," and he "has no privacy, not even to go to the restroom." She has been able to visit him once for 15 minutes, surrounded by guards with El Chapo donning shackles and handcuffs. Coronel believes her husband is in danger, as he's "slowly being tortured" and has extremely high blood pressure. "I am afraid for his life," she said.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.