Acclaimed Mexican journalist Anabel Hernandez says she has obtained internal documents that dispute the Mexican government's official account surrounding the notorious escape of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman - including whether he really left through the tunnel found under his cell.
"I am not quite clear whether he did escape through the tunnel or whether he was taken out of the jail," said Hernandez, sitting down for an interview with Telemundo's Cristina Londoño from her home in Berkeley, California, where she lives most of the time after receiving death threats in Mexico.
Hernandez told Londoño that although there was no dispute that the tunnel constructed underneath El Chapo's cell was made for him, the internal documents include testimony from several inmates who say that at one point after there was word that something happened and El Chapo might be dead, police and other officials formed a barricade that obstructed any view of El Chapo's cell for a period of time.
The documents also state there were loud noises that were picked up by the surveillance camera monitoring El Chapo - "the banging of metal against concrete," she said in Spanish - that should have alerted authorities about any imminent escape. This, said Hernandez, was never mentioned by Mexican officials when talking about the events surrounding his presumed escape.
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The document also states that prison authorities took three quarters of an hour to put out the code red system after El Chapo was found missing, though Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said it was deployed in 18 minutes.
Witnesses also stated El Chapo was acting differently in the months leading to his escape, according to the documents. This included working out excessively and getting frequent visits from his attorneys, where he was using hand gestures and signals to communicate through the glass partition.
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In response to Telemundo's request, the Mexican government said the investigation is in its classified stage. The government also said they had not given Hernandez access to the documents and are "evaluating" her statements.
Telemundo could not independently confirm the documents Hernandez has in her possession. Hernandez, the author of "Narcoland," told Londoño she has more "explosive" revelations surrounding the investigation.