MEXICO CITY
(AP) -- Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is willing to plead
guilty to any charges in the United States if U.S. authorities promise
him a short sentence in a medium-security prison, one of his lawyers
said Wednesday.
Guzman wants to accelerate the
extradition process so he can escape harsh conditions in a Mexican
maximum-security prison, where guards will not let his client sleep,
lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said that he and Guzman's family are reviewing options for a U.S. defense attorney.
"We
have talked about a proposal ... to plead guilty to the charges in the
United States without questioning their veracity," said Rodriguez, who
heads Guzman's legal team.
"That in exchange
for a reduction in the applicable sentence like others have done in
these situations, but also look for a medium-security prison so that
he's not in the conditions that he has here," he said, calling the
decision "an act of desperation" because Guzman had "reached his limit."
But
talk of a possible deal is very premature and shows a lack of
understanding of the U.S. judicial process, said David Weinstein, a
former federal prosecutor who oversaw the narcotics division at the U.S.
attorney's office in Miami.
Weinstein noted
that neither the Justice nor the State departments negotiate with
fugitives or other wanted people who are not on U.S. soil, so any
discussions could take place only following extradition. Even if Guzman
were to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors, a judge would have the final
say on sentencing while prison authorities would decide where he does
his time.
"You can't negotiate with the Bureau
of Prisons," Weinstein said. "Of all the governmental entities in the
United States, they are the least flexible. Even judges can't tell them
what to do with regard to placement."
Moreover,
Guzman, who is considered the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, faces
charges from not one but seven different U.S. attorneys' offices, in
cities including Chicago, New York, Miami and San Diego among others,
and authorities have not said which one will get the first crack at him.
So
at this point there is no one to negotiate a plea deal. And it's highly
unlikely that anyone in the United States would do so before Guzman set
foot in a U.S. courtroom.
The U.S. Embassy in
Mexico City said Wednesday it does not comment on pending extradition
cases. In Washington, Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr also
declined to comment.
Some Mexican drug
suspects have reached plea deals with U.S. authorities in the past, but
it is not clear that any have ever been able to negotiate terms on where
they will be held.
Guzman's lawyers had
previously vowed to fight extradition as long as possible, and Mexican
officials said it could take at least a year for the process to work its
way through their courts.
But Rodriguez
suggested it could be done in two months, presumably if Guzman withdrew
the estimated nine appeals his lawyers filed.
However, Rodriguez added, "We won't drop the (legal) defense in Mexico until we have an agreement with the United States."
Officials
have acknowledged that guards at the Altilplano prison wake Guzman
every four hours for a head count. He escaped the same prison in July
and was recaptured in January.
The harsher regime - Guzman also has fewer visits than during his last stint in prison - seems to have broken him.
"I saw a defeated, humiliated man," Rodriguez said.
In
February, Rodriguez gave The Associated Press a copy of Guzman's
testimony in one of the cases against him. In it, Guzman accused prison
authorities of torturing him by constantly waking him up, and said, "I
feel like a sleepwalker."
"My head and my ears always hurt and I feel bad all over," he said in the document.
The
testimony also sheds light on the relatively permissive visitors'
schedule Guzman enjoyed before his escape, now significantly reduced.
Guzman
said previously he got an hour-and-a-half every day to talk to his
lawyer and an hour outdoors in a prison patio. Every nine days, he was
allowed a four-hour conjugal visit and a four-hour family visit.
National
security commissioner Renato Sales, whose responsibilities include
overseeing federal prisons, said at a news conference Monday that
Guzman's human rights were in no way being violated and pointed out that
"El Chapo" has escaped twice from Mexican lockups.
"Shouldn't
someone who twice escaped from maximum-security prisons be subject to
special security measures?" Sales said. "The common sense answer is
yes."
