Mexico arrests seven over drug lord escape

The Mexican Attorney General's Office said on Friday that the seven people arrested were now awaiting charges at a jail in Mexico City. It was not immediately clear when those arrested were guards or other officials from the prison system. Around another three dozen people have also been taken in for questioning.

The arrests came less than a week after Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped a maximum security prison through a mile-long (1.6 kilometer) tunnel.

Due to the location of the tunnel which surfaced in a blind spot in the cell behind a shower wall, government officials believe that Guzman must have received help from employees of the prison.

Guzman's second escape in 14 years came as a huge embarrassment to President Enrique Pena Nieto who was on a visit to France when the incident occurred last Saturday.

The government's credibility and capacity to deal with drug-related violence has once again been brought under scrutiny. In a speech on Friday, Nieto said the escape had caused "indignation, frustration [and] anger in broad sectors of society."

National pride

Just two and a half weeks before Guzman made his breakout, US sent Guzman extradition request to Mexico two weeks ahead of jail breakan extradition request was filed by the US# where he faces charges for conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine.

Nieto's opposition, however, believes that handing Guzman over to the US on his recapture would be as good as admitting that they were unable to keep him imprisoned.

"National sovereignty and national pride are so important…that I doubt the government will do it," said opposition Senator Juan Carlos Romero Hicks.

On returning from Europe on Friday, Nieto said he was "fully confident" the drug kingpin would be recaptured.

ksb/jlw (Reuters, AFP, AP)