MEXICO SHAKEN BY JAIL BREAK SCANDAL

Drug Lord Who Lived Like King in Prison Reportedly Bought Freedom

MEXICO CITY - Pizza and women. Drives in the country whenever the mood
strikes. Guards on the payroll. A decent wine list, whites properly chilled
in contraband ice. What more could a murderous drug lord ask from his
maximum security prison?

But apparently that was not enough for Joaquin Guzman, a violent little
brick of a man known as "El Chapo," who left it all behind last weekend.

The reputed former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel reportedly paid millions
in bribes to guards, and maybe the warden, and rode out of the maximum
security Puente Grande prison hidden in a laundry truck.

In his wake, Mr. Guzman, who had been incarcerated since 1993 on a 20 year
sentence for drug trafficking, left a series of nagging and embarrassing
questions, mainly this: Is Mexico really so hopelessly corrupt that one of
the country's most notorious convicts could live like a king in jail, then
just walk away?

"All the prison bars and millions of pesos spent on security systems are
useless if prisoners leave through the door," said Jorge Tello Peon, the
country's chief of public security. "What happened," he added, "is proof of
the capacity of corruption, or rather structural corrosion, of national
institutions by organized crime, particularly drug traffickers."

Mr. Guzman's escape has triggered a national soul-searching about the depth
of corruption within law enforcement agencies and the best way to clean it up.

President Vicente Fox has renewed his vow to crack down on drug
traffickers, promising more extraditions to the United States and tougher
prison conditions in Mexico. Mr. Fox has said he wants to end a culture in
which drug traffickers can buy their way out of prosecution, and those
unlucky enough to go to prison "live like masters."

In a speech Wednesday in Mr. Guzman's home state of Sinaloa, Mr. Fox vowed
to redouble his efforts to curb drug traffickers and all forms of organized
crime. "Today I reaffirm our war without mercy against the pernicious
criminal mafias," he said.

Mr. Fox pledged a "great reform" against crime "so every family can sleep
peacefully, so we all can live without fear of going out into the street,
without assaults or humiliation, without the fear of losing everything at
the hands of the criminals."

Mr. Fox did not offer any specifics of his plan, but said he believed
"public insecurity" could only be cured by a two-pronged approach against
criminals and against the poverty and despair that can lead to crime.

Mr. Guzman's escape came a week after Mr. Fox's government ordered an
investigation of corruption at the prison and the Mexican Supreme Court
issued a ruling clearing the way for more extraditions to the United
States. Mr. Guzman, who is wanted in the United States on drug charges,
also fled on the day he was scheduled to have been moved to a higher
security area of the prison, located in the city of Guadalajara.

Whether the timing was a coincidence, or a decision by Mr. Guzman and his
colleagues that things were getting too hot for comfort, is unclear.
Interior Minister Santiago Creel, the country's top security official, told
reporters he believed "we're seeing some reaction precisely to the progress
we've made in the last few weeks."

Clearly, however, Mr. Guzman's case, the arrest of the prison warden and
the questioning of 33 guards suggest how deep corruption runs. And this
week's all-out manhunt to rearrest Mr. Guzman is an attempt by Mr. Fox's
government to disabuse the country's worst fears about the government's
impotence in the face of rich and powerful drug traffickers.

As hundreds of officers searched for Mr. Guzman, human rights officials
denounced Mexico's lax prison conditions and the ability of rich inmates to
buy whatever they wanted - from illegal drugs to their freedom. They said
the problem has existed for years and was ignored by the government.

"We know that the structure of public security in this country is sick from
top to bottom," said Marti Batres Guadarrama, a member of Congress.