Officials say that guards at the Altilplano prison wake Guzman every four hours for a head count. Guzman described the practice as “torture” in testimony for one of the cases against him. “I feel like a sleepwalker,” he said. “My head and my ears always hurt and I feel bad all over.” Rodriguez described his client as, “a defeated, humiliated man,” the AP says.
Renato Sales, Mexican national security commissioner, said Monday that Guzman’s human rights are not being violated, mentioning that Guzman escaped from prison twice. The AP quotes him as saying, “Shouldn’t someone who twice escaped from maximum security prisons be subject to special security measures? The common sense answer is yes.”
Guzman was originally fighting extradition, after the U.S. filed a request two days after his arrest. Mexican officials said the process could take at least a year to go through the Mexican court system, according to the AP. Rodriguez says it could be done in just two months if his client drops his appeals. Of course, he says he won’t let go of any defense until he has a deal with the U.S. government.
At the moment, it is unclear which U.S. court would get first crack at Guzman, so right now there isn’t even anyone on the U.S. side to negotiate a deal.
[h/t The Daily Beast, ]