The wife of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has spoken out in defence of her husband in an interview with Telemundo, saying she fears for his life and that he is being denied his basic human rights.

The US Spanish-language broadcaster uploaded some clips of an interview with Emma Coronel Aispuro that the network will broadcast in full on Sunday.

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“I fear for his life,” said the wife of the Sinaloa drug cartel chief, who escaped from the Altiplano I maximum-security prison outside Mexico City in July 2015 but was recaptured in January and returned to the same penitentiary.

El Chapo was arrested on January 8. Photo: AAP

Coronel, who married Guzman in 2007, complained about her husband’s prison conditions, maintained that his health was suffering and said she would hold the Mexican government responsible for whatever happens to him.

“We don’t know if he’s eating well. In general, we don’t know his situation because we haven’t been able to see him,” she said.

Guzman’s wife said it was clear that the drug lord was being made to pay for having escaped last year.

“They say they’re not punishing him, but of course they are.”

“El Chapo” was being constantly monitored day and night, she said.

“They’re there all day long. They’re doing roll call at all hours. They don’t let him sleep. He doesn’t have any privacy, even to go to the bathroom.

“I think any human being has the right to have at least the basic things of a human being. It’s clear they’re not enforcing that in his case,” Coronel said.

Guzman escaped from Altiplano I on July 11, 2015, using a nearly mile-long tunnel that authorities say was built at great expense, but Mexican security forces tracked him down on January 8 in his native state of Sinaloa.