Mexico is Worried that Repeated Screw-ups Will Make Them “Laughing Stock”

The President of Mexico is worried about international ridicule if his country’s prisons keep making the same dumb, goofball mistake.

“Imagine the suspicion, the jokes, the memes”, President Lopez Obrador said this week.

He’s talking about this weird thing that keeps happening: drug kingpins keep getting “accidentally” released from Mexican prisons before their sentences are over.

Eight years ago, drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero walked out of prison after “an improper release order” was sent from a court in a different state. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, Caro Quintero was the guy responsible for the torture and execution of U.S. DEA agent Kiki Camarena, an event which played out on Season Two of Narcos on Netflix. As you can imagine, the United States was not at all pleased to learn that this killer was turned loose because of some spurious paperwork.

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Then, last Saturday, ANOTHER cartel boss was almost released in a similarly incompetent way. Hector “El Guero” Palma was set to be released after a judges secretary sent a letter ordering his release…on a Saturday. Which also happened to be a national holiday.

That near-release prompted President Lopez Obrador’s concern about the “jokes and memes”.

Lopez Obrador says he’s worried that such “mistakes” might make other countries view Mexico as “corrupt” or, God forbid “complicit” in the comical mix-ups. This is coming from the same President who personally ordered the release of El Chapo Guzman’s son. According to Lopez Obrador, this isn’t complicity…he was just trying to “avoid bloodshed” as part of his “hugs not bullets” approach to combating the cartels. Riiiiiight…

The Mexican President left out the MOST hilarious prison screw-up, though. He didn’t even mention the Looney-Toons style tunnel under the prison that El Chapo himself escaped from. Like a reverse-Bugs Bunny popping out of the ground after making a “wrong turn at Albuquerque”, El Chapo disappeared down a hole in his prison cell to, presumably, pop out the other end in Pismo Beach.

You might think this IS a joke. So, here’s Don Lemon showing the actual video of it happening:

Lopez Obrador may worry about being a laughing-stock but something tells me none of this is a laughing matter to Kiki Camarena’s family or the DEA. It also probably explains why the U.S. INSISTS on keeping Guzman in an AMERICAN prison. For some reason, the old “tunnel under the prison” trick doesn’t work as easily on a Supermax prison in Colorado. Go figure.

 

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