Bishops in Mexico denounced corruption within the federal government following the escape of drug kingpin, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.
Arrested in February 2014, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel escaped incarceration for a second time, through a complex tunnel built underneath the shower in his cell.
Although there were calls for Guzman’s extradition to the US, the Mexican government chose instead to imprison him in the country, raising concerns. Now that he has escaped a second time, outrage and suspicion of corruption within the government has been expressed, particularly by Mexico’s bishops.
«The second escape of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, leader of the ‘Cartel de Sinaloa’ from the maximum security prison further undermines the little credibility of the population in the federal authorities», said Bishop Jose de Jesus Martinez Zepeda of Irapuato.
According to Fides news agency, Bishops Martinez further expressed his dismay, saying that assurances of public safety vanish «when a drug dealer escapes for the second time from a maximum security prison.»
«We must all work to overcome this crisis of credibility, of justice, of law and then try to rebuild the country on a solid foundation of truth, justice and transparency,» he said.
Other bishops weighed in on El Chapo’s escape. Bishop Francisco Moreno Barrón of Tlaxcala said that it underscores the frailty of Mexico’s maximum security facilities. Córdoba’s Bishop Eduardo Porfirio Patiño Leal exhorted authorities to not «treat the population as ‘naïve’ by saying that no one was aware of a tunnel of a kilometer and a half from where El Chapo escaped.» (J.A.E.)
