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 The kingpin snuck out of the prison through a subterranean tunnel
more than 1.5 km (1 mile) long that ended at an abandoned property
near the local town, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro
Rubido told a news conference on Sunday.
Guzman, who had bribed his way out of prison during an escape in
2001, was seen on video entering his shower area at 8:52 p.m. on
Saturday (0152 GMT Sunday), then disappeared, the National Security
Commission (CNS) said.
Wanted by U.S. prosecutors and once featured in the Forbes list of
billionaires, Guzman was gone by the time guards entered his cell in
Altiplano prison in central Mexico, the CNS said.
"This is going to be a massive black eye for Pena Nieto's
administration," said Mike Vigil, former head of global operations
for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
"I don't think they took into account the cunning of Chapo Guzman
and the unlimited resources he has. If Chapo Guzman is able to make
it back to the mountainous terrain that he knows so well in the
state of Sinaloa ... he may never be captured again," Vigil said.
Beneath a 50-cm (20 inch) by 50-cm hole in the cell's shower area,
guards found a ladder descending some 10 meters (32 feet) into the
tunnel, which was about 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) high and 70-80
centimeters (28-31 inches) wide.
 Inside the passageway used for Guzman's latest escape, guards found
a motorbike mounted on rails, probably used to cart away soil,
Rubido said, as well as equipment to pump air into the tunnel.
Prison workers were quickly questioned over the escape.
The government said 30 officials from the penitentiary were being
interrogated at the unit specializing in organized crime at the
Attorney General's office.
Outside the Altiplano lockup, and at the deserted property where
Guzman surfaced, security forces barred reporters, while guards
arrived for the day shift and encountered a prison in lockdown,
wondering whether to stay or go home.
After the launch of a massive manhunt for Guzman, Pena Nieto ordered
an investigation into whether public officials had helped the capo
escape.
"There's no doubt this is an affront to the Mexican state, but I
have confidence that the institutions ... can recapture this
criminal," he said in a statement from Paris.
Guzman was one of the world's top crime bosses, running the powerful
Sinaloa Cartel, which has smuggled billions of dollars worth of
cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States and
fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.
The flight of Guzman, who became a legendary figure in villages
scattered in the sierra where he grew up in northwestern Mexico,
seriously undermines Pena Nieto's pledge to bring order to a country
racked by years of gang violence.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, noting Guzman faces multiple
drug-running and organized crime charges in the United States, said
Washington shared Mexico's concern over the escape.
"The U.S. government stands ready to work with our Mexican partners
to provide any assistance that may help support his swift
recapture," she said in a statement.
The breakout happened in the State of Mexico, the home state of Pena
Nieto, who took office in 2012 vowing to confront cartel violence
that has killed more than 100,000 people since 2007.
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'UNFORGIVABLE'
The Mexican president has come under increasing pressure to deliver
on his pledges to root out corruption after becoming embroiled in a
string of conflict-of-interest scandals. He was en route to France
when news of Guzman's getaway broke.
Before Pena Nieto won election, politicians in his Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI) had mocked their conservative rivals for
letting Guzman escape while they ran the country, saying it would
not have happened on their watch.
Days after Guzman was captured in 2014, Pena Nieto said another El
Chapo escape must "never happen again."
"Given what happened in the past, truly, it would be worse than
deplorable, it would unforgivable," he said then.
Over the past decade, dozens of illegal tunnels built by gangs
trafficking drugs and people across the U.S.-Mexican border have
cropped up, with more than 100 found since 2007.
But penetrating Mexico's highest security prison to spring the
world's most infamous drug smuggler undoubtedly represents a more
audacious challenge, experts said.
Rubido did not comment on why authorities had apparently failed to
notice a long tunnel being built under the prison.
The capo's escape could also strain relations with the United
States, which wanted Guzman extradited, said Alberto Islas, a
security expert at consultancy Risk Evaluation.
"They were concerned about how dangerous he was, and they had a lack
of confidence in the Mexican authorities to stop him operating from
jail," he added.
In 2001, Guzman paid guards to help him slip out of the
high-security Puente Grande prison near the city of Guadalajara
after a previous arrest in 1993. After eluding capture for 13 years,
Guzman was arrested in Sinaloa in February 2014.
Government officials vowed on Sunday that Guzman would be
recaptured, and security forces fanned out to search roads near the
prison, which is some 90 km (60 miles) west of the capital.
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Dave Graham in Mexico City;
Additional reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez, Joanna Zuckerman
Bernstein and Adriana Barrera; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jeffrey
Benkoe)
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