In It Together

"They're all in it together, they're all accomplices. These all-mighty criminals are so powerful, I have an impression they have a direct line to the president, to let him know what they are doing and just wiring millions to buy off their free rein."
Jose Manuel Gil, Mexico City

The question is will the Mexican military be two times lucky and once again succeed in apprehending Joaquin Guzman Loera? Not that his recapture will in any measure redeem and restore the military and the government to any measure of esteem and trust. Ordinary Mexicans, having undergone years of horrendous violence resulting from the corruption and weakness in government and policing agencies that allowed Mexico's drug cartels to run amok with unrestrained brutal violence, are well and truly fed up.

Authorities say there was a modified motorcycle on tracks inside the tunnel Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman used to escape from a maximum-security prison.

How could the most notorious drug king in the country possibly have his covert actions go undetected for as long as it took, likely since his apprehension in 2014, to have a tunnel built to enable him to take his leave of his secure cell in the Altiplano maximum security prison to emerge eventually to freedom? President Enrique Pena Nieto has much to answer for, particularly on the part of a man who pledged his resolve to clean up corruption and tame the violence that wracked his country.

"The lack of rule of law, the stain of corruption and the disaster of the criminal system in Mexico is probably Mexico's No.1 problem. The escape only underlines the cruel and bitter reality. We need to reform the system starting from its roots."
"Our worst nightmare has happened. This has a terrible weight, real and symbolic."
Enrique Krauze, Mexican historian

"What the escape really tells us about Mexico is the extreme difference between the quality and professionalism within the government."
"You have an elite government that is able to capture drug traffickers and approve reforms the country has been waiting to see for decades, but all of the major scandals in terms of the security have come from the inability of the federal government to control the state and local governments."
Viridriana Rios, security analyst, director of a Mexican civic group

Corruption? The head of the Altiplano Prison situated a 90-minute drive from Mexico City has been detained for questioning by investigators, along with roughly thirty other employees of the prison. When President Pena Nieto arrived in office in 2012 his intention was stated as big on reforms that were felt to be long overdue. To focus the country away from drug violence and corruption.

Since then details of his wife Angelica Rivera buying a luxury house on credit from a contractor who had profited from government business, resulted in the deal being set aside once it was made public. Which didn't apparently stop the country's finance minister, Luis Videgaray from buying a house from the same company under what must in the circumstances have been very favourable conditions.

The esteem in which he may have been held soon after his inauguration soon plummeted even as the president has attempted to portray Mexico on an upward economic trajectory, its violent drug wars a thing of the past, and his own administration nowhere near exhibiting the corruption of past administrations. This, even while continuing episodes of violence and corruption remind Mexicans they are far from achieving their wished-for goal.

The mayor of Iguala in the state of Guerrero had been involved in the abduction and disappearance of 43 students last year. The state police had apprehended them in a political move of demonstrations against corruption, and the mayor saw to it that the students were turned over to an area gang who killed them, burning their remains. That tragedy saw scores of arrests and horrified Mexicans fearing their country would never be a safe place to raise families.

Mexican authorities released what they said was a recent photograph of escaped drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman as they announced a reward for information leading to his capture.

Guzman led the country's most powerful drug syndicate, the Sinaloa Cartel, an underworld figure whose exploits ensured he would be one of the most feared and reviled men in Mexico, with powerful connections and wealth that he could command from a prison cell to ensure that he would remain incarcerated for no longer than it would take an industrious group of trenchers to dig a respectable tunnel for his escape.

And, amazingly, no one noticed.