Is Emma Coronel the devoted wife of El Chapo, or is she being used as a prop?

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.

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