Mexico Is Considering Extradition of Escaped Drug Lord Known as El Chapo

After long resisting requests from Washington, Mexico’s government is now considering extraditing Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, to the United States to face drug charges there, a Mexican official said Saturday.

The Mexican official, who confirmed news reports on the Mexican government’s new stance, said the process could take months as it goes through the judicial system. Mr. Guzmán’s lawyers are expected to fight extradition to the United States, where he faces at least seven indictments in federal courts on charges of drug trafficking and murder. A spokesman for the president’s office declined to comment on the issue of extradition. Mr. Guzmán, who escaped from prison last year, was captured Friday after a gun battle near the coast in his home state, Sinaloa. His capture was the culmination of a monthslong manhunt in the mountains of the so-called Golden Triangle, a rugged area in the northwest of the country. The Mexican government has resisted past efforts to extradite Mr. Guzmán, claiming the issue was a matter of sovereignty and insisting that he would first serve his time in Mexico before he was sent to the United States. Three weeks before his escape from prison, through a mile-long tunnel from his shower stall, the United States made a formal extradition request.