Blog del Narco: Drug Lords El Chapo and La Barbie Team Up for Prison Hunger Strike

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, and Edgar Valdez Villarreal, “La Barbie,” imprisoned in the maximum security prison of the Altiplano in Almoloya, State of Mexico, banded together last week and showed their strength to the federal government. They organized almost a thousand inmates, five modules of the prison, to initiate a hunger strike to protest alleged human rights violations at the prison.  According to information disclosed from the criminals lawyers and confirmed by some prisoners, a hunger strike, led by “El Chapo “and” Barbie “,  began on Wednesday and will remain” until further notice “.

Prisoners complain that the prison, whose CEO is Valentin Cardenas Lerma-, does not allow access to the store in which their families deposit funds so that they have toiletries. Allegedly prisoners are not given proper medical attention or medication. Furthermore, just prior to the hunger strike, more than 20 inmates were poisoned by eating spoiled chicken.  In addition, prisoners claim they are not given underwear and no time for family visits or telephone calls to which they are entitled is.

In August 2010 when the PF presented “La Barbie” in the media, the offender looked sturdy and smiling; Now, according to testimony from the lawyers interviewed, weighs about 17 kilos less and within the prison he has converted to Christianity. Upon your arrival at Altiplano, Valdez Villarreal was also held in the area of “Special Treatment”s and at least ten times.This hunger strike is in protest, because for a year and a half was not allowed to see his wife. He also complained of the lack of cleanliness of their environment, poor nutrition and medical care.  Although Guzman and Valdez are in the area of greatest prison security and supposedly can not communicate with each other or with other prisoners, they organized the hunger strike, which totaled nearly a thousand inmates, more than half of the prison population. Special Treatment area rules will require that all prisoners of this area eat in their cells, not in the dining room. From Wednesday 16 “El Chapo” and “La Barbie” have rejected the three daily meals that take them. According to information gathered through Friday 18, fasting continued. In response, prison authorities handed strikers socks and underwear, and the director has tried to talk to them. Prisoners are asking to be allowed a 9 inches TV, as permitted by the regulations, that the store is increased to 300 thousand pesos, as the Cefereso of Matamoros.

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Published in Latino Daily News