El Chapo’s Been Moved Closer to the US – But Why?

The move comes on the heels of a federal judge’s decision that the drug lord can be extradited to the States.  

By Alexandra HartMay 10, 2016 2:40 pm

Over the weekend cartel kingpin Joaquín Guzmán, better known as El Chapo, was transferred from a prison in Mexico City – one from which he previously escaped – to another just on the southern side of the Texas-Mexico Border, near Juárez.

Now, a federal judge in Mexico has just announced that Guzmán can be extradited to the United States. But are the two events connected?

Jeronimo Cortina, a political science professor at the University of Houston, says Mexican authorities said they made the decision a week ago, so the move wasn’t made in light of the judge’s decision. He was transferred from a maximum security facility to a medium-security one near the border.

“The Mexican foreign relations ministry has 20 days to decide if El Chapo can be extradited or not,” he says.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– Why there’s been so little transparency about he was moved to a less secure facility and one closer to the border

– What violations the Mexican Human Rights Commission has seen at the facility where they moved El Chapo

– How Guzmán’s escape has colored his extradition