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Mexico to help ‘El Chapo’ family seek U.S. humanitarian visas

U.S. support for such a request would be extremely unlikely
15668428_web1_TSR-Supermax-Prison-1-EDH-190214
FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2007, file photo, guard towers loom over the administrative maximum security federal prison called Supermax near Florence, Colo. Experts say the drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who will be sentenced on June 25, 2019, for smuggling enormous amounts of narcotics into the U.S and having a hand in dozens of murders, seems the ideal candidate for “Supermax” prison also known as ADX for “administrative maximum,” a facility so secure, so remote and so austere that it has been called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” (Chris McLean/The Pueblo Chieftain via AP)

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that he has instructed his government to assist the family of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in seeking humanitarian visas to visit the convicted drug trafficker in the United States.

During a visit last week to Guzman’s hometown of Badiraguato in Sinaloa state, a lawyer passed Lopez Obrador a letter from Guzman’s mother.

“Like any mother asking me for support for her son,” Lopez Obrador said.

Guzman’s mother asked for legal help and assistance obtaining humanitarian visas for two of Guzman’s sisters to visit him.

Lopez Obrador was in Sinaloa to announce a highway construction project in the area.

He said legal questions would have to be dealt with by Mexico’s Interior Ministry, Attorney General’s Office and judiciary.

READ MORE: U.S. jury convicts El Chapo on all counts

A reporter had asked Lopez Obrador about unconfirmed reports that Guzman’s mother asked him to arrange to have the drug lord serve out his sentence in Mexico, but the president did not respond directly.

U.S. support for such a request would be extremely unlikely considering Guzman has escaped from two prisons.

But on the humanitarian front, Lopez Obrador said: “I gave instructions that they facilitate (soliciting the visas) and that the sisters be able to go to the United States and to help them according to the laws, regulations that country has, so that they can visit him or have communication.”

Guzman was convicted Feb. 12 in federal court in New York on multiple drug trafficking and conspiracy charges and likely faces a life sentence.

The Associated Press

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