El Chapo's brazen escape puts Mexico's reputation on the line

Guzmán’s escape belies the rosier picture of stability that Mexico’s leaders present, while bolstering the worst stereotypes of incompetence and corruption. Mexico cannot afford mistakes when its reputation rests on the competent handling of kingpins like Guzmán, especially given how quick Mexico is to cite its sovereignty whenever US law enforcement agencies offer assistance.

Even from prison, Guzmán reportedly continued to play a leading role in operations of his Sinaloa drug cartel, whose trafficking network for cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana exploited the Texas border area to supply a vast US drug market including Dallas and beyond.

Guzmán, 58, had already escaped once from prison, in 2001, and spent 13 years on the run before his recapture last year. US officials sought his extradition, but Mexican authorities insisted that they could handle his imprisonment this time.

We were sceptical, especially since another imprisoned cartel leader, Rafael Caro Quintero, walked free from his prison cell in August 2013. He remains at large, all because a state judge ruled that Caro Quintero had been tried in the wrong court.

Mexico’s judiciary and law-enforcement communities are infamous for corruption, and there’s little doubt among US law enforcers that personnel inside the maximum-security Almoloya federal prison assisted in this escape. The levels of engineering precision necessary to dig a mile-long tunnel network – connecting a remote house to a vertical shaft right beneath Guzmán’s private cell – would have been unlikely without inside assistance and detailed diagrams of the prison layout.

And why was Guzmán allowed a private cell, with a shower conveniently hidden from video monitoring cameras? Such lapses undermine Mexico’s law-enforcement credibility. You simply don’t treat one of the nation’s most dangerous and highly valued prisoners with such laxity.

Mexican officials, including President Enrique Peña Nieto, currently travelling in France, and for whom Guzmàn’s capture in February was a crowning achievement, must be spitting angry. Not only do such incidents undermine Mexico’s international credibility, they provide easy ammunition to critics such as GOP presidential contender Donald Trump, who cites Mexico’s insecurity as reason to build border walls, deploy troops and impugn the character of the Mexican people.

US assistance can help plug some very obvious holes – and tunnels – in Mexico’s corruption-plagued law-enforcement, judicial and penal system. Mexico’s authorities should swallow their pride and place questions of sovereignty secondary to the top priority of security.