The Denver Post | ‘El Chapo’ gains weight, reads books in prison

MEXICO CITY — Drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is getting some self-help advice and gaining a bit of weight in prison under his new, tighter-security regime, but Mexico’s formerly most-wanted man is apparently not doing so well in the love department.

Guzman, who tunneled out of the same prison last July, now has two guards standing outside his cell watching him every minute of the day. There is a dog whose only job is to test his food before he eats it to make sure it’s not poisoned. He no longer has a television but gets free reading material.

Since he was recaptured in January, Guzman has read the classic “Don Qui xote” and has now started a Spanish-language translation of “The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?” by Rick Warren, a California-based evangelical pastor. The self-help book contains quotes that might pertain to Guzman, such as: “A pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life.” And: “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.”

Read more at Mexican Drug Lord Reads ‘The Purpose Driven Life’.