Chapo’s escape: ‘This is going to set us back years’

Hours after the world’s most infamous drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, escaped Mexico’s highest security prison, the United States offered everything it has – marshals, drones, even a special task force – to help recapture him. But the Mexicans have kept the Americans at bay, without giving an answer on the extra help, according to Mexican and U.S. officials. They say the delay has confounded law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border and undermined efforts to find Guzmán, the billionaire head of the Sinaloa cartel known as El Chapo, before his wealth and global connections help him disappear last weekend. “We can’t really understand why they are refusing to give an answer,” said one Mexican official, who works in the country’s security apparatus but was not authorized to speak publicly about his government’s deliberations. “We’re just on standby.” Mexico’s hesitations over the U.S. offer reflect years of strain between the countries as their ambitious joint effort against the cartels has waned, including a drop in extraditions to the United States and divided priorities in Mexico. Mexico’s interior secretary, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, said Monday night that the two countries were cooperating, just as Mexico worked closely with Guatemala to secure its southern border. But at a news conference about the search for Guzmán, who absconded through an elaborate tunnel dug 30 feet beneath his prison shower, Osorio Chong made clear that no additional U.S. assistance should be expected. “We are not going to do something new beyond what we have already been doing,” he said...more