10 January 2016•Update: 11 January 2016
MEXICO CITY
Mexican authorities said Saturday that they would begin extradition procedures to the U.S. against Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
The decision was in line with U.S. requests formulated last summer, according to a press release from the Mexican attorney general’s office.
“With the recapture of Guzman, we will have to open the extradition process,” it read.
Authorities said Guzman would have three days to file objections to the extradition request and 20 more days to prove them, although the timeframe could be deferred.
The extradition decision marks a turning point in Mexico’s official position on the Guzman who twice managed to escape while in Mexican custody.
He is wanted in the U.S. on drug-related charges.
The head of the Sinaloa drug cartel was recaptured Friday and sent back to a maximum-security prison in Altiplano, near Mexico City, where he had escaped in July.
His latest capture in the city of Los Mochis, in his home state of Sinaloa, was the result of a six-month manhunt after he escaped via a tunnel dug from the shower of his cell.
