AT LEAST 140 ESCAPE PRISON IN NUEVO LAREDO

The Mass Breakout in the Border City Is the Latest in a String of
Such Incidents.

At least 140 inmates escaped from a prison in the violence-plagued
border state of Tamaulipas, authorities said Friday.

The prison's director reportedly disappeared after the escape, which
occurred Thursday night in Nuevo Laredo, the latest in a series of
escapes across Mexico.

Antonio Garza Garcia, public safety secretary in Tamaulipas, told a
radio station that the escapees probably had help from prison
personnel. He said most of the inmates were being held on state
charges but that 58 had been charged with federal crimes, a category
that includes drug trafficking and weapons offenses.

Garza said the inmates appeared to have escaped through service
entrances. None had been reported captured by late Friday. An
investigation was underway.

Mexico's Interior Ministry condemned the escape and what it called a
failure by local authorities to prevent such incidents.

"The absence of effective measures of control and oversight by local
authorities is deplorable, and has generated frequent escapes from
prisons, putting the safety of communities at risk," the ministry
said in a statement.

The breakout was another reminder of the troubled state of the
nation's overcrowded and porous prisons, where graft is rampant and
criminal gangs are essentially in command. Many times, escapes are
aided by corrupt guards or prison officials.

In the northern state of Durango, a prison director was jailed in
August on charges she had allowed inmates to leave the prison with
weapons borrowed from guards to carry out attacks on rival drug
gangs. The inmates then returned to the prison, in the city of Gomez
Palacio, federal authorities said.

Tamaulipas, stronghold of the Gulf cartel, has seen several prison
escapes. In September, 89 inmates clambered over the walls of a
prison in Reynosa. In March, 40-- most of them accused cartel members
- -- were freed by gunmen in Matamoros.

Last year, gunmen helped 53 inmates flee a prison in the northern
state of Zacatecas, as guards stood by.

The administration of President Felipe Calderon is seeking to improve
the management of prisons through better vetting and training, aided
by experts provided by the U.S. government. The efforts are part of a
broader attempt to create a more reliable judicial system in Mexico
at a time when the government is engaged in a controversial war
against drug traffickers.

On Friday, as news broke of the most recent escape, top Mexican
officials and American diplomats were attending a graduation ceremony
of the federal prison-workers academy in the coastal state of Veracruz.

Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico's public safety secretary, told graduates
that the nation needs better prison guards and supervisors and that
the expertise provided by U.S. trainers would help.

The number of inmates in the eight-prison federal system has exploded
since Calderon launched a military-led offensive against drug
traffickers four years ago. The federal prisons now hold 12,450
inmates, compared with 3,000 in 2006.

In other developments, a car apparently rigged with explosives blew
up outside a police station in the border state of Nuevo Leon,
injuring two people. There were no immediate arrests.