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A Mexican judge has temporarily suspended an attorney general's order on Friday that would see the world's most powerful and wanted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman extradited to the United States if captured, in an on ongoing flip flop of authorities' position on the issue.
The suspension comes just a day after a federal court ruled in favor of extraditing El Chapo, going against the position of the President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose government previously vowed not to extradite the notorious drug lord, saying he had to first serve time in Mexico.
The judge who issued the suspention did not give a reason to justify the move.
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However, El Chapo's legal team requested on Wednesday legal protections for their client against an arrest warrant that would result in extradition, sources told EFE. Defense lawyers often use the measure to protect clients, and provisional suspension is often granted, according to EFE sources.
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A final decision whether to grant the protections requested by lawyers and permanently suspend the extradition order is expected on August 26.
El Chapo is wanted in the United States for more than a dozen criminal charges including drug trafficking and money laundering in the states of Arizona, Texas, California and New York.
U.S. authorities demanded Guzman's extradition in June, prior to his high-profile escape from a maximum security prison on July 11 for the second time, allegedly through a mile-long underground tunnel said to have been built over the course of eight months.
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Since the Sinaloa cartel kingpin's escape, evidence of suspicious circumstances has emerged revealing high-level complicity that suggests he was even allowed to leave the jail. Authorities claim they still do not know his whereabouts, despite the fact that local media has widely reported that he is somewhere in the region just north of the Mexican capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
Many drug traffickers wanted in the U.S. have been extradited almost immediately after their arrest in Mexico. Such was the case of Vicente Zambada, the son of another powerful drug lord, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, also of the Sinaloa cartel. He was arrested in Mexico in March 2009 and in a process lasting less than 11 months was extradited to the United States.
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