Page 48 - KPA 16 JULI 2015

WORLD NEWS A11
Thursday 16 July 2015

Mexico drug lord escape tunnel Colombia:
is audacious feat of engineering
Path to peace littered with land mines

C. SHERMAN stand without hitting his JACOBO GARCIA Soldier Albeiro Jose Acuna, 20, searches for land mines where
E. CASTILLO head. When he reached Associated Press locals reported that rebels had planted them in Cocorna,
Associated Press the other end, he climbed GRANADA, Colombia (AP) Colombia. Soldiers are searching for and removing live land
ALMOLOYA, Mexico (AP) a wooden ladder through — At first, Sandra Gonzalez mines in rural areas like Cocorna, clearing farms and roads so
— Mexico’s most prized a large, wood-framed didn’t think much of the residents can return to their homes.
prisoner paced his cell, shaft with a winch over- guerrillas burying objects
first to the latrine, then head that had been used on the dirt road outside (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
the shower, then the bed. to drop construction sup- her isolated, cinder-block
At every turn around the plies into the tunnel. After farmhouse as they pre- Colombia is the world’s able, it would take 47 years
tiny room, drug lord Joa- pulling himself up 17 rungs, pared to leave town 12 second-deadliest country to certify Colombia is clear
quin “El Chapo” Guzman he reached a small base- years ago. for land mines, behind Af- of land mines even if no
checked the shower floor ment, where a blue pow- But soon cows and horses ghanistan, with more than more are planted.
hidden by a half wall, be- er generator the size of a began to die, ripped apart 2,000 people killed and For every explosive that is
cause even jailed crimi- compact car provided by exploding land mines. 11,000 maimed or wound- removed, at an estimated
nals get their privacy. the electricity to illuminate Then a neighbor lost his life. ed by shrapnel since 1990, cost of $1,000 per device,
In his final sweep, Guz- and pump oxygen into From then on, neither Gon- according to the govern- several more are assem-
man sat on his bed and the underground escape zalez nor her four children ment. About a third of the bled using cheap, readily
took off his shoes. Then he route. have dared to turn right victims are civilians. available materials such as
walked back to the show- From there, Guzman walking out the door. Most of the hidden killers coffee tins, fertilizer and sy-
er, stooped behind the walked to a shorter lad- “When the livestock es- were planted by retreat- ringes, he said.
wall and disappeared. It der and climbed one, caped from the corral, ing members of the Revo- “Every guerrilla can carry
was the beginning of an two, three steps as the air nobody would chase after lutionary Armed Forces of four or five (explosives) in
escape odyssey straight thinned and the tempera- them,” Gonzalez said. Colombia as part of a strat- their backpack,” he said.
out of the pages of fic- ture dropped 10 degrees. Tens of thousands of land egy to protect themselves “There are ones that deto-
tion, and the media were As Guzman’s head poked mines are among the most from pursuit by sowing ter- nate with movement, oth-
given a peek on Tuesday above the dirt floor, he sinister scars of Colombia’s ror in the minds of their bat- ers covered in excrement
of the deep and sophis- climbed three more rungs half-century conflict. And tlefield enemies. so dogs can’t detect them,
ticated tunnel that led to stand inside the unfin- even as the government For at least a decade, an and they’re even placed
the leader of the Sinaloa ished bodega built to hide and rebels hold slow-mov- army battalion, now com- inside soccer balls. ... You
cartel, whose illicit drug the elaborate scheme. ing peace talks in Cuba, manded by Col. Andres can make mines in as many
trafficking reach includes Digging crews had dis- more are being planted, Goyeneche, has been in ways as your imagination
Europe and Asia, swiftly carded 4-by 4-inch wood- perhaps faster than old an uphill struggle to re- allows you to spread evil.”
to freedom late Saturday en beams, 8-foot-tall coils ones can be removed. move mines in areas no The FARC have promised
night. of steel mesh, gallons of Dressed head to toe in an longer contested by the to stop using land mines,
Mexico’s security commis- hydraulic fluid, 10-foot astronaut-like armored suit, rebels. something Colombia’s
sioner Monte Alejandro Ru- lengths of PVC pipe and soldier Albeiro Jose Acu- Goyeneche said the bat- army did in 2000 when it
bido said Tuesday that up an electric disc saw. A na kneels on the ground talion has removed 4,400 signed an international
to the moment Guzman battered wheel barrow combing for explosives. mines so far, but according treaty. But though their use
disappeared, his pacing full of fine gray soil sat just Minutes feel like hours as to government estimates, has decreased, the weap-
was considered normal above the opening in the the army technician ad- at the current pace and ons continue to be part
for someone who lives in floor. A couple of impro- vance centimeter by cen- with the technology avail- of the rebels’ arsenal. q
about 5 square meters (60 vised wooden tables and timeter with a paint brush
square feet) with only an a wooden bench round- and tweezers to inspect
hour a day outside for ex- ed out the bodega’s furni- every suspect object be-
ercise. But there was noth- ture, along with shelves of fore declaring it safe to
ing usual after he lifted a assorted drill bits, a circu- tread. Information about
slab of concrete shower lar wood saw blade, a jar the exact location of the
floor and descended into of liquid cement for pipe mines is scarce to nonexis-
a warm and humid man- joining and a bottle of mo- tent.
made underworld, where tor oil. “Any small mistake can
a motorcycle rigged to Seven more strides and take your life,” says Acuna.
two carts on rails waited the man who Mexico’s A bead of sweat dripping
to whisk him away. government said could from his face, less from
Guzman either rode on not possibly repeat his the tension, he says, than
the bike or in one of the 2001 prison escape the suffocating heat in this
carts for a mile (1.5 kilo- stepped through a sliding jungled valley a few hours
meters) in the dirt tunnel steel door into the chilly from Medellin, Colombia’s
built just high enough for night on a high plain west second largest city. “This is
a man called “Shorty” to of the capital.q no place to be nervous.”