KINGPIN CAME, WENT AT PRISON

Escape Renews Calls To Clean Up Mexico's Corrupt Prison System

MEXICO CITY -- Details that emerged Tuesday of a drug kingpin's escape
last week from a maximum-security prison -- along with charges that he
previously had left and entered the facility "like it was his house"
- -- have prompted new anger over corruption at Mexico's prisons.

Jose Antonio Bernal, a top official of the government's National Human
Rights Commission, also charged that the escapee, Joaqun "El
Chapo" Guzman, had received illicit drugs, alcohol, women and
prohibited medicines in the Puente Grande federal prison near
Guadalajara. Public Security Undersecretary Jorge Tello Peon said
Tuesday that Guzman had escaped Friday in a garbage truck.

Guzman is a leader of the Felix Gallardo drug family, which
authorities say is deeply involved in shipping illegal drugs to the
United States. He was serving a 21-year sentence on a variety of
charges, though none of them related to drug crimes that he is
believed to have committed.

His escape and the incredible privileges he allegedly enjoyed in
prison underscore the seriousness of Mexico's corruption problems and
the challenges facing the country's new president, Vicente Fox, who
has promised a cleaner government.

Public reaction to Mexico's latest escape scandal is closer to dismay
than surprise. A few years ago, a drug lord escaped from a Mexico City
prison in a helicopter painted to look like one from Mexico's Justice
Department.

Guzman's escape also illustrates why extradition of drug suspects for
trial in the United States will be on the agenda when President Bush
meets Fox in Guanajuato state Feb. 16.

Crime experts say drug criminals are able to buy shorter sentences in
Mexico. Many are never convicted, and those who are frequently
escape from prison.

"Extradition to countries without our corruption problems would be
good," criminologist Rafael Ruiz Harrell said Tuesday. "If you've
got $2 million or more to spend, there's not a prison in this country
that can hold you."

Fox, who took office Dec. 1 after decades of rule by the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, has vowed to improve Mexico's
performance in the war on drugs, and has indicated new willingness to
extradite suspects sought by the United States, as several U.S.
presidents have requested.