After a 13-day manhunt through the Argentinian countryside and an announcement Saturday that three fugitive prisoners had been recaptured, officials have backtracked and announced that only one of the men has been caught while the other two remain at large.
The three men, Victor Schillaci and brothers Christian and Martin Lanatta, were serving lifetime imprisonment for murdering three businessmen associated with the pharmaceutical industry and allegedly operating an ephedrine trafficking ring, Reuters reported.
The trio managed to break out of a maximum-security prison almost two weeks ago, and the subsequent manhunt has gripped the nation, as parts of it were even shown live on television, according to The Guardian. Martín Lanatta was captured just outside the town of Cayasta, in Santa Fe Province, 354 miles north of the capital of Buenos Aires, after the pickup truck that the three fugitives were using flipped over.
The other two men escaped on foot, reported Global News, after being chased by police on horseback. Their escape is an embarrassing blow to the new conservative government under President Mauricio Macri. "Congratulations to the whole team and the security forces for capturing the fugitives. Working together was fundamental," Macri tweeted after the news that the three fugitives had been caught. He has not tweeted since the mistake was revealed.
The bold escape of the fugitives occurred two weeks after Macri took presidential office, and accusations of inside help have heightened tensions between his government and the administration of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. "Drug-trafficking has grown in the last decade like never before in our country because of the inaction or complicity of the last government," Macri stated last week, as he reasserted his commitment to fighting the drug trade.
The three prisoners claimed in August that de Kirchner's chief of staff, Aníbal Fernández, has drug trafficking involvements and had ordered the triple homicide, BBC News explained. However, the accusations have been denied and have not yet been pursued.
The situation has raised suspicions about the political links of Argentinian drug gangs, as well as indicated the country's increasing role as a transit point for traffickers taking drugs from South American to the U.S. and Europe, according to The Guardian.
