Renato Sales, Head of Mexico's National Security, rejected claims that Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera has undergone torture, discrimination or human rights violations of any kind at the hands prison personnel at the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 9 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
In an interview with Mexican journalist Adela Micha, the head commissioner said the Sinaloa cartel leader's health is fine and that officials are open to allowing the National Human Rights Commission observe his holding cell and health conditions.
This interview comes just hours after the kingpin's common-law wife, Emma Coronel, filed an official complaint with the Human Rights Commission claiming that his physical and mental health, and including his own life, are in jeopardy, arguing that she doesn't expect him to make it past December.
Sales said that given the history of El Chapo's escapes, he's under special surveillance and is isolated from other prisoners, but that doesn't mean he's being mistreated. In fact, he said that Guzmán has regular visits from family members, including Emma Coronel and his team of legal representatives.
Sales also suggested that Guzman's cartel, and even one of his brothers who was not named, was responsible for an ambush in Culiacan at the end of September that killed five soldiers.