When the most notorious drug lord in the Americas, Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn Loera, escaped from a maximum security prison for a second time last year, Mexican officials finally agreed to extradite him to the United States. It was a humiliating change of heart, amounting to an admission that the Mexican government couldnt guarantee it could keep the kingpin behind bars.

After Guzmn was recaptured last month, Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto said he'd instructed his countrys attorney generals office to carry out the extradition as quickly as possible . It wont be easy. The outsourcing of justice has always wounded national pride in Mexico, and the country's laws afford so much latitude to appeal that local media report it could take as long as six years before the process is complete.