CHAPO JUST A NICE GUY
Wife opens up, sez all will be fine
Mexican druglord Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman is a “humble and simple” family man who deserves the benefit of the doubt at his trafficking trial in Brooklyn, his beauty queen wife claims.
In a rare interview with Telemundo, Emma Coronel Aispuro said the man she married on her 18th birthday in 2007 is no criminal mastermind.
She wants people to know “how he is a person and a human being, how he is a friend and a father, how he is a regular person,” she said in the interview that aired Monday night.
“Sometimes I feel the media has overexposed him,” she said. “I feel people created an image of him, and they want that image to remain in the public’s consciousness. It’s the image that sells. So when someone says he’s a humble and simple man, they don’t like to hear that.”
Coronel, 29, said Chapo appears “thinner” since his extradition to the U.S. last year, but she believes he’s “staying positive” during the trial now in its fifth week and expected to last three months.
Asked if Guzman enjoys his fame and notoriety, Coronel said she believes he does.
“Honestly, I think he did. He does, a bit,” she said. “In a way, I think he sees it in a positive way. He likes the media pressure because it ensures transparency. That way people can see what’s really going on, and who he really is. He wants everyone to know the truth.”
Coronel, who could easily pass for a member of the Kardashian family, said she’s had no part in any illegal activity, and that’s why she’s been allowed to travel to New York and attend the high-profile trial.
“I own land and things of that sort. I’d rather not go into that. But I don’t …I’m not involved in anything illegal,” she said.
The American-born daughter of a Mexican cattle rancher said she hasn’t really considered testifying on her husband’s behalf when it’s time to mount his defense.
She told Telemundo her daily attendance at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn is the least she can do to show “support.”
“I think it’s what any wife would do, being by their husband’s side in difficult times, like the ones he’s going through right now,” she said.
She denied breaking courthouse rules and using a cell phone to communicate with her husband during the trial, as prosecutors have alleged.
She said their only contact since Chapo left Mexico has been seeing each other across the courtroom each day.
“Obviously I want to see him, I want to be with him. I want to know what’s going on. It makes me feel good to see him, to be aware of what’s happening,” she said.
She said it’s too soon for people to pass judgment on her family.
“He’s a defendant on trial. People are looking at him like he’s already been declared guilty. I’d like to clear that up. He’s still on trial. We have to wait to see if all those serious accusations... are proven,” she said.
She said the other narcotraffickers who have testified for the government as cooperating witnesses shouldn’t be trusted.
“They’ll say anything that will benefit them,” because they’re facing prison sentences of their own, she argued.
She declined to comment when pressed about her husband’s business interests. “I’d rather not talk about those issues,” she said.
When asked about the claim her husband used a particular ranchera song to telegraph he was about to have someone killed, she replied, “I’d rather not answer that question.”
She claimed she hasn’t watched any TV shows or movies depicting Chapo’s life but said he might be interested in a project after the trial.
“If that’s what he wants to do, then I’d be thrilled to support him,” she said. “He can’t do any of that right now because he’s in the middle of a trial.”
Coronel said she’s not even considering the possibility her husband will be found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
“I want to think that everything will be all right. I want to think about positive things,” she said.