Pubdate: Sat, 18 Dec 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: A10
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Ken Ellingwood, Reporting from Mexico City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico+Under+Siege

AT LEAST 140 ESCAPE PRISON IN NUEVO LAREDO

The Mass Breakout in the Border City Is the Latest in a String of 
Such Incidents.

At least 140 inmates escaped from a prison in the violence-plagued 
border state of Tamaulipas, authorities said Friday.

The prison's director reportedly disappeared after the escape, which 
occurred Thursday night in Nuevo Laredo, the latest in a series of 
escapes across Mexico.

Antonio Garza Garcia, public safety secretary in Tamaulipas, told a 
radio station that the escapees probably had help from prison 
personnel. He said most of the inmates were being held on state 
charges but that 58 had been charged with federal crimes, a category 
that includes drug trafficking and weapons offenses.

Garza said the inmates appeared to have escaped through service 
entrances. None had been reported captured by late Friday. An 
investigation was underway.

Mexico's Interior Ministry condemned the escape and what it called a 
failure by local authorities to prevent such incidents.

"The absence of effective measures of control and oversight by local 
authorities is deplorable, and has generated frequent escapes from 
prisons, putting the safety of communities at risk," the ministry 
said in a statement.

The breakout was another reminder of the troubled state of the 
nation's overcrowded and porous prisons, where graft is rampant and 
criminal gangs are essentially in command. Many times, escapes are 
aided by corrupt guards or prison officials.

In the northern state of Durango, a prison director was jailed in 
August on charges she had allowed inmates to leave the prison with 
weapons borrowed from guards to carry out attacks on rival drug 
gangs. The inmates then returned to the prison, in the city of Gomez 
Palacio, federal authorities said.

Tamaulipas, stronghold of the Gulf cartel, has seen several prison 
escapes. In September, 89 inmates clambered over the walls of a 
prison in Reynosa. In March, 40-- most of them accused cartel members 
- -- were freed by gunmen in Matamoros.

Last year, gunmen helped 53 inmates flee a prison in the northern 
state of Zacatecas, as guards stood by.

The administration of President Felipe Calderon is seeking to improve 
the management of prisons through better vetting and training, aided 
by experts provided by the U.S. government. The efforts are part of a 
broader attempt to create a more reliable judicial system in Mexico 
at a time when the government is engaged in a controversial war 
against drug traffickers.

On Friday, as news broke of the most recent escape, top Mexican 
officials and American diplomats were attending a graduation ceremony 
of the federal prison-workers academy in the coastal state of Veracruz.

Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico's public safety secretary, told graduates 
that the nation needs better prison guards and supervisors and that 
the expertise provided by U.S. trainers would help.

The number of inmates in the eight-prison federal system has exploded 
since Calderon launched a military-led offensive against drug 
traffickers four years ago. The federal prisons now hold 12,450 
inmates, compared with 3,000 in 2006.

In other developments, a car apparently rigged with explosives blew 
up outside a police station in the border state of Nuevo Leon, 
injuring two people. There were no immediate arrests.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake