Manhunt in Mexico after drug baron jailbreak

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said that he was confident in the police's ability to recapture Joaquin Guzman, after his weekend escape through a 1.5-kilometer (1-mile) tunnel starting in the shower area of his cell.

"This represents without a doubt an affront to the Mexican state," Pena Nieto, on a previously planned trip to France, said of the jailbreak. "But I also have the confidence in the institutions of the Mexican state … that they have the strength and determination to recapture this criminal."

Pena Nieto's government had received praise for its tough stance on the country's cartels, arresting or killing six major kingpins - including Guzman - since coming to power in 2012. The president was elected on a pledge to bring order to the country after years of struggling with gang violence.

Joaquin "El Chapo" ("Shorty") Guzman runs the Sinaloa cartel, which has smuggled billions of dollars' worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine into the US in recent years, and fought fierce battles for influence with rival gangs in Mexico. According to Interpol information, Guzman is 58 years old.

Prison employees questioned

Guzman, who had managed to bribe his way out of a jail cell back in 2001, was seen entering the shower area in his cell at 8:52 p.m. local time on Saturday, according to the National Security Commission. Soon after, he disappeared from the Altiplano high-security prison, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Mexico City.

Investigators have since found a ladder, descending some 10 meters (32 feet) through a hole in the shower area. The tunnel itself, about 1.7 meters high and 70-80 centimeters wide, was around 1.5 kilometers long and professionally excavated. Police found a motorbike mounted on rails, thought to be used to cart away soil, and equipment to pump air into the tunnel. The passage was also lit. Guzman was able to surface in an abandoned house; The Associated Press reported a local resident noting that outsiders had bought the disused property around a year ago, immediately starting construction.

Mexico's Federal Attorney General's Office said on Sunday that its unit for organized crime was interrogating around 30 employees from various parts of the prison. President Pena Nieto ordered an investigation to discover whether the gang leader received inside help, after the jailbreak took place in his home state of Mexico.

Mike Vigil, former head of global operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said that swiftly recapturing Guzman before he reaches his own safe zones could prove crucial, adding that Mexican authorities underestimated the Sinaloa gang.

"I don't think they took into account the cunning of Chapo Guzman and the unlimited resources he has. If Chapo Guzman is able to make it back to the mountainous terrain that he knows so well in the state of Sinaloa … he may never be captured," Vigil said.

Cross-border manhunt

Guatemala's Interior Ministry said it was watching its border with southern Mexico, while the US - which had urged Mexico to extradite Guzman when he was captured last year - similarly offered help.

"The US government stands ready to work with our Mexican partners to provide any assistance that may help support his swift recapture," US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, noting that Guzman faces multiple drug running and organized crime charges in the US.

Days after Guzman's 2014 arrest, President Pena Nieto had said that another "El Chapo" escape could not be tolerated. "Given what happened in the past, it would be worse than deplorable, it would be unforgiveable," he had said.

msh/dj (AP, Reuters)