Team for Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' launches PR blitz

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.

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.

Another Guzman attorney, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, says that the drug lord wants to be sent to the U.S quickly and negotiate a guilty plea in exchange for a "reasonable" sentence in a medium-security prison in the United States.

Raul Benitez, a security specialist who teaches political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said during that earlier imprisonment authorities did not violate his human rights, quite the opposite.

[...] El Chapo" pulled off a brazen escape, coolly stepping into a hole in the floor of his prison cell shower and whizzing to freedom on a motorcycle modified to run on tracks laid the length of the tunnel.

Guzman complains that frequent bed checks, barking dogs and regular prison racket keep him from sleeping and drive his blood pressure to dangerous levels.