Notorious drug baron Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman is one step closer to – probably – spending the rest of his life in a U.S. prison.
The 61-year-old leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was moved to a high-security prison in the desert outside Ciudad Juarez last weekend in what some commentators believe is preparation for his extradition.
A federal judge Monday ruled that there was no legal impediment to the extradition process, which began after soon Guzman’s dramatic recapture in January.
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign of Relations now has three weeks to decide whether to approve the extradition, according to some sources. However, Guzman’s lawyers have filed a string of appeals and say a quick-fire decision is impossible and could take several more years. They argue that their famed client’s human rights would be seriously abused should he be whisked across the border without the conclusion of the legal process.
Although authorities said Guzman’s transfer to Ciudad Juarez is part of a normal rotation of prisoners and also due to a security upgrade at the supermax Altiplano prison in Estado de Mexico, many analysts see it as confirmation of the Mexican government’s eagerness to rid its hands of this thorn in their side. The administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto was harshly criticized after Guzman escaped from Altiplano prison through a mile-long tunnel in July 2015. Their embarrassment was compounded following the publicity sparked by actor Sean Penn’s extraordinary meeting with the fugitive in the western Mexican sierra last fall. That the encounter took place at the height of a massive manhunt for Guzman proved to be yet another humiliation for the government.
Although Peña Nieto had previously stated that Guzman must serve his sentence in Mexico before any extradition request would be considered, he appears to have had a change of heart. The prospect of Guzman escaping for a third time (he also craftily slipped out of a Guadalajara prison in 2001) would not only make the president an international laughing stock but potentially jeopardize the chances of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) from retaining power in the 2018 general election.