--- title: Mexican Officials Criticized After Drug Lord's Second Escape | TIME description: After a notorious Mexican cartel leader escaped again from a maximum-security prison, critics are questioning the government's competence. canonical: https://time.com/video/0VWJ5dE3/ og:title: Mexican Officials Criticized After Drug Lord's Second Escape og:description: After a notorious Mexican cartel leader escaped again from a maximum-security prison, critics are questioning the government's competence. og:url: https://time.com/video/0VWJ5dE3/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0VWJ5dE3/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mexican Officials Criticized After Drug Lord's Second Escape twitter:description: After a notorious Mexican cartel leader escaped again from a maximum-security prison, critics are questioning the government's competence. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0VWJ5dE3/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Mexican Officials Criticized After Drug Lord's Second Escape > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Mexican Officials Criticized After Drug Lord's Second Escape [Watch (HLS stream): Mexican Officials Criticized After Drug Lord's Second Escape](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0VWJ5dE3.m3u8) (1:56)  _Published 2015-07-12. After a notorious Mexican cartel leader escaped again from a maximum-security prison, critics are questioning the government's competence._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:32 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [El Chapo, the Notorious Drug Kingpin, Has Been Sentenced to Life in Prison in the U.S.](/video/UkszkhPl/) ### El Chapo, the Notorious Drug Kingpin, Has Been Sentenced to Life in Prison in the U.S. [Mexican Drug Lord Nazario Moreno Killed \(Real](/video/aZkhtRNE/) ### Mexican Drug Lord Nazario Moreno Killed (Real [Aerial Drug Bust at the Mexican Border](/video/Tra1WjL1/) ### Aerial Drug Bust at the Mexican Border --- ## Transcript The first time Mexican authorities arrested drug lord Joaquin " El Chapo" Guzman, it took him more then seven years to escape. This time just one. And as much as his most recent capture in 2014 helped the image of Mexico's anti- cartel efforts, his escape proved disastrous. Especially for Mexican President, Enrique [ UNKNOWN ], who has already seen massive protests against him this year, sparked by allegations of corruption, often linking government officials to cartels. His government has made a big show of capturing cartel figures, which makes their escapes all the more painful. [ UNKNOWN ] is probably the highest profile cartel leader to escape prison in recent years, but prison breaks in Mexico aren't all that uncommon. In 2012 more than 130 inmates escaped a major prison in Northeastern Mexico and killed more than 40 other inmates. Officials linked the escapees to the notorious Zeta cartel and nine guards confessed to helping them escape. It's not clear if guards were involved in El Chapo's latest escape but in a press conference a security official detailed how he might have gotten out and the plot is pretty elaborate. [ FOREIGN ] He said they found a tunnel a little more then 5 feet tall and 2. 2 feet wide. stretching for more than 1. 5 kilometers. And they found a motorcycle on rails, which was probably Probably used to remove dirt from the excavation and transport tools. And [ UNKNOWN ] has won over guards before. As a writer for The New Yorker explains, during [ UNKNOWN ] first [ UNKNOWN ] in prison, he bought off the prison staff and enjoyed a life of relative luxury. He conducted business by cell phone, orchestrated regular visits from prostitutes, and threw parties for favored inmates. That same writer today noted, a tunnel seems like a painfully obvious choice for Guzman, seeing as he invented the border tunnel. His cartel dug 100 + tunnels under the border, and he escaped Marines last February through a tunnel in his house. The maximum security prison where Guzman was held is just half an hour from the major city of Toluca, which may make it a lot easier for Guzman to disappear yet again. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mexican Officials Criticized After Drug Lord's Second Escape","description":"After a notorious Mexican cartel leader escaped again from a maximum-security prison, critics are questioning the government's competence.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0VWJ5dE3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-12T16:28:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0VWJ5dE3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/0VWJ5dE3/","duration":"PT1M56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/0VWJ5dE3/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```