MEXICO HALTS EL CHAPO EXTRADITION

For those compliance officers who feel that the current high level assessment, imposed upon Country Risk for Mexico, is not justified by the facts, consider this: the courts there have halted the pending extradition, on money laundering, drug trafficking, murder, and other charges, of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, commonly known as El Chapo, and Shorty. This stay means that Shorty's lawyers could delay extradition for years.

The sad thing about it is that the Mexican judges were not required to stay the proceedings, and Shorty should, right now, be on his way to the United States. The fact that he is still in Mexico speaks volumes about the country's justice system's fatal flaws.

The arguments made by Shorty's lawyers were legal garbage:
(1) The Statute of Limitations had run on some of the US charges. Nonsense, every lawyer knowns that the Statute tolls when a defendant is outside the jurisdiction.
(2) Some of the charges are based upon hearsay. More nonsense; extradition requests must only prove that the individual sought is indeed the one sought. You do not argue the case on the merits; save it for the trial, abogados.

Remember, the defendant escaped not once, but twice, from custody. After asserting some sort of primary claim over him initially, and denying the US Shorty, Mexico changed its tune after the defendant embarrassed the government, but now, if the US does not get Shorty, due to some other bogus excuse or manufactured issue, then compliance officers should take that into consideration, when assessing Country Risk. If you cannot trust the courts in Mexico to act, when they should, then Country Risk levels skyrocket towards the unsatisfactory plateau.