DRUG LORD ALLOWED PRIVILEGES IN JAIL

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A reputed drug lord who escaped from one of Mexico's
most secure prisons last week had regularly been let out of prison for
illicit trips and had been given access to drugs and women, witnesses have
told government investigators.

Federal officials say Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's easy life in jail and his
escape Friday illustrate the depth of the corruption Mexico's new
government has inherited, and how hard it will be to fight it.

Guzman was serving more than 20 years for criminal association and bribery,
and was involved in a 1993 shootout in which a Roman Catholic cardinal was
killed in a crossfire. He apparently rode out of the Puente Grande prison
in Mexico's western Jalisco state hidden in either a laundry or garbage
truck. Authorities said security cameras were somehow disabled.

Now authorities are saying the timing of Guzman's disappearing act appears
suspicious: It came just a week after newly inaugurated President Vicente
Fox's administration ordered an investigation of corruption at the prison.

The probe threatened to end Guzman's special treatment, including access to
drugs, alcohol and women, National Human Rights Commission investigator
Jose Antonio Bernal told a news conference on Monday.

"El Chapo entered and left (the federal prison) escorted by the prison's
own security authorities," Bernal said, citing reports by several witnesses
at the prison he has been probing since September.

The escape occurred just six weeks before Mexico's annual U.S. anti-drug
certification test: Foreign countries found not to be cooperating against
drug traffickers face a cutoff of aid.

Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda dismissed concerns about the
certification, saying Mexico doesn't need a U.S. seal of approval.

"It's lamentable that Chapo Guzman escaped, but not because of the
certification," Castaneda said. "It is lamentable because its shows the
legacy of corruption and impunity that we inherited from governments going
back many years."

But Cardinal Juan Sandoval did see a U.S. connection: Sandoval suggested
Guzman was allowed to flee due to last week's Mexican Supreme Court
decision which removed the last barriers for extraditing Mexicans to the
United States. Sandoval told the newspaper El Universal that if extradited,
Guzman might tell U.S. authorities "everything he knows about the drug
trafficking, corruption and complicity that are everywhere here."

Interior Secretary Santiago Creel, the nation's top security official, said
he believes criminals like Guzman are reacting to the new administration's
increased pressure on corruption.

"We're seeing some reactions precisely to the progress we've made in the
last few weeks," Creel said.

Guzman is wanted on U.S. charges that he oversaw the building of a tunnel
1,416 feet long and 65 feet deep beneath the border to smuggle drugs into
the United States.

On Jan. 19 -- hours before Guzman escaped -- Mexican federal authorities
said they had ordered Guzman transferred to a higher-security area of
Puente Grande prison. Those orders were apparently never carried out. After
the escape, the prison warden was fired and he and 33 guards were interrogated.

Prior to his Dec. 1 inauguration, Fox said he knew Mexico's long-running
drug trafficking operations would be the toughest nut to crack in his quest
for reform here. But after the Guzman incident, Fox's administration seemed
shocked by the breadth of corruption.

"It is going to be a very definitive battle," Creel said, "one that we have
to win."