41 Mexican guards to go on trial for jailbreak

Mexico City, Dec 29 (IANS/EFE) A Mexican judge decided to bring to trial 41 guards, among them seven women, posted to a penitentiary in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo for their alleged responsibility in the escape of 153 prisoners, authorities said.

“The accused … employed (in) … Nuevo Laredo, will face charges for the crime … resulting from the escape of 153 inmates last Dec 17,” the Attorney General’s Office, or PGR, said Tuesday.

Initially, authorities said that 141 prisoners had managed to escape from the prison in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, but later upped that figure to 151 and now the PGR is saying that 153 inmates broke out of the facility.

So far, authorities have not captured a single one of the prisoners who fled, and the prison warden - Efrain Hernandez Llamas - who did not show up for work after the mass jailbreak, remains missing.

The state’s top prison official, Horacio Sepulveda, was fired a few days after the escape.

Since the beginning of this year, Tamaulipas has been a battleground for two drug cartels - the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas - who are fighting a bloody turf war that has taken more than 1,000 lives and created an atmosphere of terror throughout the region.

Nuevo Laredo is located across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas.

–IANS/EFE