Bishops’ fury at Guzman jailbreak

Mexico’s bishops have rounded furiously on their Government, expressing outrage at the escape from prison of the notorious leader of the Sinaloa drugs cartel, Joaquín Guzmán, pictured below.

The bishops’ conference said Guzmán’s escape was an “embarrassment” and questioned the ability of the new Governance Ministry to operate effectively. The ministry, set up in 2012, is known as a super ministry, with a vast array of responsibilities from national security to town planning. An editorial in the bishops’ official newspaper called it a “useless giant”, unable to do anything properly.

“The super ministry has shown itself to be ineffective in organising public security and intelligence. It has now become a mini ministry,” says the editorial. 

Guzmán, one of the world’s richest men, escaped from the Altiplano maximum security prison last week through an underground tunnel a mile long. He had previously broken out of jail in 2001, going on the run until he was recaptured last year.

The Bishop of Córdoba, Eduardo Patiño Leal said Guzmán’s escape revealed the extent of corruption in Mexico. “We’d be naive to think that the authorities weren’t complicit,” he said. The Bishop of Irapuato, José de Jesús Martínez, said the escape further weakened the flimsy credibility of  federal authorities.