By FREDDY CUEVAS
Associated Press Writer
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras- Honduran officials were on alert Thursday in after a Honduran man accused of being a serial rapist escaped from a U.S. jail.
Air, land and maritime officials were keeping an eye out for Reynaldo Rapalo, who used bed sheets to rappel down the side of a jail Tuesday night.
“We are ready to arrest this man if he tries to enter Honduras,” said police spokesman Napoleon Nazar. “We’ve been alerted by the U.S. police, who have asked us to collaborate in this case.”
Nazar promised the country would immediately deport Rapalo if he shows up in Honduras.
Rapalo and fellow inmate Idanio Bravo climbed through a vent in the ceiling of Bravo’s single-man cell on the sixth floor and made it to the roof on the same level, officials said.
The vent, which connects to the roof, was supposed to be locked but its door had been pried off. Bars blocking the vent’s opening onto the roof were also cut.
Bravo, who was awaiting trial on sexual assault charges, was captured outside the jail because he broke his legs when he jumped.
Rapalo is accused of being the Shenandoah rapist who sexually assaulted seven girls and women and attacked four others in the Little Havana area of Miami, Florida, in 2002 and 2003. He was awaiting a February trial that could have sent him to prison for life.
His mother, Esther Rivera, told El Heraldo newspaper in Honduras that she believed her son would return to his native country.
“I’m happy that he’s free,” she told the newspaper, adding: “My son wrote me several times, and in his letters, he always told me he would be with me soon.”
Rivera didn’t have a phone and was not immediately available to speak with The Associated Press.