Emma Coronel, the devoted wife of El Chapo or a prop?

Some think El Chapo’s team is using Coronel, and her popular Instagram account and media appearances, as a distraction
There she is in the cafeteria at New York’s eastern district courthouse, when Judge Brian Cogan adjourns her husband’s trial: Emma Coronel Guzmán.

Ariana News Agency- There, in the line for mozzarella sticks or a burger, are lawyers defending Ms Coronel’s husband, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, the reputed leader of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s biggest; journalists line up too, hungrier for an inside tip than anything to eat.

And there’s Emma, at the next table to us on one occasion, nibbling from a plastic container, with two lawyers who double up as soft-power bodyguards. She’ll acknowledge a smile or nod, but no more.

She was censured last week by her husband’s prosecutors for being twice in possession of a forbidden cell phone in the courtroom vicinity, and what court documents call “unauthorized” and “impermissible contact” with Guzmán. The heavily redacted papers say it was made “in concert with an attorney” – implicating the defence team.
And this week, Ms Coronel broke her silence on Telemundo TV, saying her husband was a “humble” man who wants “everyone to realize how things really are and see it all from another perspective”. The media had made El Chapo “too famous”, though: “I think he did like [the attention], he does like it a little.” “We have a business,” she said, specifying an irrigation enterprise, but “I cannot talk about that because everything in my life makes for scandal.”

Who is Emma Coronel, and what is her role?

“It seems like the defence team is showcasing Emma and the kids in public”, says Derek Maltz, former agent for the DEA’s special operations division in New York “so people may feel sorry for this man who will most likely be in jail for the rest of his life”.

“Do these people covering the trial really believe in the beautiful love story between El Chapo and Emma?” says Anabel Hernández, who conducted a first interview with Ms Coronel in 2016. “Oh come on. She’s a distraction, and that in itself is important to El Chapo and the lawyers”. But as Hernández goes on to explain, there’s more to it than that.

Emma Coronel was born in Santa Clara, California, – a US citizen – daughter to Ines Coronel Barreras, a medium-ranking lieutenant in the Sinaloa cartel. She grew up in the ‘Golden Triangle’ of the Sierra Madre, and met Guzmán at a dance.