So Long, El Chapo

Recently, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as infamous Mexican crime lord, El Chapo, escaped from a maximum security prison, fleeing through an underground tunnel somehow connecting to the shower area in his cell bloc. What a mess, this guy miraculously squeezed a full grown adult body through 20 x 20-inch hole and took off with supporters, escaping Mexican authorities for the second time. Loera was arrested and convicted in 2001 before bribing correctional officers and being smuggled out in a luandry cart. After 13 years on the lam, El Chapo was once again apprehended in 2014 in a bloodless arrest at a popular Mexican resort.

After his second arrest, the US attempted to extradite him for numerous drug trafficking charges. Despite the potential for exactly what ended up happening as well as the chance to save millions of dollars, Mexican officials resisted this request, stating that El Chapo's incarceration was a point of national pride. Irony.

Tunneling seems to be something of a specialty for El Chapo, as his organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, is notorious for the underground tunnels through which they smuggle firearms and insane quantities of drugs to and from the United States. El Chapo is thoguht to have accounted for as much as 80% of the drugs in Chicago, his main port of distribution. Chi City continues to struggle with a thriving drug trade and an intense culture of violence.

Somehow, I think that this billionaire drug kingpin will be somewhat tougher to catch than David Sweat and Richard Matt, the two American fugitives who led local, federal, and state troopers on a month-long goose chase around the foothills of the Adirondacks. If two starving and desperate former inmates could elude capture that long (especially well trained and adequately funded American troops), how do you think the overtly incompetent Mexican government will fare with a billionaire crime lord like El Chapo?

My guess is we won't see Señor Loera for a good long time.

Bailed Out

Alexis Tsipras finally caved on the Greek bailout deal nearly a month after missing a payment to its creditors and a week after the country decisively voted 'no' to the deal in the countrywide referendum that Tsipras himself advocated. Tsipras is the decisive loser in this month long game of chicken (i.e. pissing contest) and his country will be forced to accept a deal imposing even harsher levels of austerity.

This is Greece's third bailout in the last half decade, as their ravaged economy still struggles to recover from the global recession of 2008. Now Greek citizens will accept the consequences of even more austerity, likely meaning substantial pension cuts and tax hikes. These emergency measures are essentially the cost of remaining in the Eurozone, leaving which would have ultimately been the only other option for Tsipras and his administration. While his constituents clearly would have run that risk rather than accept further capitulation to Germany and their endless industrial success.