REUTERS
(REUTERS) Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto called on Sunday (July 12) for a full investigation into the jailbreak of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to uncover whether any public officials helped the kingpin escape even as Mexico’s attorney general told journalists that dozens of prison employees were being questioned about possible involvement.
Pena Nieto was flying to France on a state visit when news of Guzman’s escape late on Saturday night broke.
In a statement read out on Mexican local TV, Pena Nieto said he had confidence the country’s security forces would recapture Guzman.
“We are also aware of the very unfortunate incident that has angered and outrages Mexican society. I am deeply shocked by what happened, the escape of one of Mexico and the world’s most wanted. This is undoubtedly an affront to the Mexican government, but I am also confident that Mexican institutions, particularly those charged with public security rise to the challenge, with the strength and determination to re-capture this criminal,” he said from the Mexican embassy in Paris.
“El Chapo” broke out of a high-security prison on Saturday night for the second time, escaping in a tunnel built right under his cell, and heaping embarrassment on Pena Nieto.
The kingpin snuck out of the prison through a subterranean tunnel more than 1.5 km (1 mile) long that ended at an abandoned property near the local town, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido told a news conference on Sunday.
Guzman, who had bribed his way out of prison during an escape in 2001, was seen on video entering his shower area at 8:52 p.m. on Saturday (0152 GMT Sunday), then disappeared, the National Security Commission (CNS) said.
Wanted by U.S. prosecutors and once featured in the Forbes list of billionaires, Guzman was gone by the time guards entered his cell in Altiplano prison in central Mexico, the CNS said.
Beneath a 50-cm (20 inch) by 50-cm hole in the cell’s shower area, guards found a ladder descending some 10 meters (32 feet) into the tunnel, which was about 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) high and 70-80 centimeters (28-31 inches) wide.
Pena Nieto said he ordered a thorough investigation into whether public officials had helped the capo escape.
“I have given instructions to the Attorney General’s office of the Republic to carry out a thorough investigation to determine if public servants from the prison, from the prevention and rehabilitation body, were complicit or involved in this incident which allowed this criminal to escape,” he added.
Prison workers were quickly detained over the escape. Attorney General Arely Gomez said 30 officials from the penitentiary were being interrogated at the unit specializing in organized crime at the Attorney General’s office.
“We already have in the Attorney General’s office of the Republic 30 people who worked in the prison who are giving their statements to see what their judicial situation will be and what further steps we take.”
Guzman was one of the world’s top crime bosses, running the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which has smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States and fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.
The flight of Guzman, who became a legendary figure in villages scattered in the sierra where he grew up in northwestern Mexico, seriously undermines Pena Nieto’s pledge to bring order to a country racked by years of gang violence.
The breakout happened in the State of Mexico, the home state of Pena Nieto, who took office in 2012 vowing to confront cartel violence that has killed more than 100,000 people since 2007.
Before Pena Nieto won election, politicians in his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had mocked their conservative rivals for letting Guzman escape while they ran the country, saying it would not have happened on their watch.
Days after Guzman was captured in 2014, Pena Nieto said another El Chapo escape must “never happen again.”
“Given what happened in the past, truly, it would be worse than deplorable, it would unforgivable,” he said then.
Government officials vowed on Sunday that Guzman would be recaptured, and security forces fanned out to search roads near the prison, which is some 90 km (60 miles) west of the capital.