El Chapo: Finally Convicted After 18 Years on the Run

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by Fio del Pielago

On February 12, 2019, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, or more famously known as “El Chapo,” was finally convicted of 10 counts of international distribution of an estimated 200 tons of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana to the U.S.

Most people, such as Freshman Lyly Nguyen, identify Guzmán as “a well-known drug lord who recently got caught and brought into the U.S.” Although Guzmán is most known for his work in the Sinaloa Cartel, where he transported 440,000 pounds of cocaine, he has also committed a variety of other crimes such as kidnapping, murder, and torture.   

Guzmán has been on the run since 2001. He escaped from high-security prisons in Mexico on two separate occasions and hasn’t been caught until recently. Guzmán is notorious for his underground tunnels beneath the US-Mexico border, used as a way to smuggle drugs into the US and to escape prison.

Guzmán is infamous for bribing Mexican presidents with millions of dollars to get them to “look the other way.” Recently, it was released that Guzmán paid former president, Enrique Peña Nieto, $100 million to keep the president silent, upon the president’s request.  Nguyen didn’t understand why Nieto would accept the deal, saying “You could eventually get caught which would forever ruin your name and who you are as a person.”

There is speculation around Guzmán being held in the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, or for short, ADX. ADX is infamous for its extreme conditions for its prisoners. Inmates spend 23 hours in their cells with little to no human contact, and the cells only have one window, it is 3 feet high and 4 inches wide.

Freshmen Sophia Rodriguez and Elijah Altland both agree that Guzmán was rightfully sentenced.  Rodriguez elaborated on the idea saying, “He was also involved in prostitution, murder, and he has escaped from prison on multiple occasions.”

As of 2007, Guzmán is wed to Emma Coronel Aispuro. The couple met at a party that her father, Ines Coronel Barreras, had thrown when Coronel was a teen. Coronel already had connections to Guzmán because her uncle was one of his most trusted men, and as soon as Coronel turned 18, they had a wedding.

With Guzmán in prison, Coronel is left to raise their two twin daughters alone. They have been able to visit him a few times while he was in custody, but Coronel hasn’t been allowed to see him other than in court. Although Coronel is now a single parent, it is clear that she will not let Guzmán’s conviction affect her in a great way, even telling the press, “It is what he would want.”