Why does Lechero want to get out of Sona so quickly?

Question

In Season 3 Episode 10 of Prison Break, Sammy gets submerged and killed by the terrain, which just drops on him after he tries to escape through the tunnel created by Michael. Soon after that each of his body guards get killed and Lechero is back as the chief of Sona.

In Season 3 Episode 11, at the beginning, Lechero says the following

I don't care who knows what, as long as somebody knows how the .... we get out of here by tomorrow.

Now I understand that nobody wants to stay in jail, so I suppose everyone, having the possibility to, would decide to escape rather than staying behind the bars. The question is: why is he in a hurry? He is back as the chief of the jail and I was wandering what was the reason, which was pressuring him.

I thought an explanation would have been, that the collapse caused a hole in the "no man's land", but as we saw, they all checked if there was one, after it happened and there wasn't. So this is not a reason to stress Lechero.

Then of course the hole appears, because the rain comes, providing a reason to hurry, but then again Lechero told Michael, he is the one who has a deadline, so the whole story makes me a little confused.

Answer 1

Lechero is not the sort of person who is accustomed to being told he has to wait for things. He doesn't handle delays very well.

Also, despite his claim that he "doesn't care who knows what" he does know that if word gets out that he's escaping, it will bring out all the would-be usurpers to either stop him or replace him (or both.) I think he even says something to this effect in the show, though I'm not sure if it's before or after the part you reference here. Meaning the longer he's there, the greater the risk that he'll lose his position of power (without escaping first.) And if the escape ultimately falls through, he really doesn't want to be stuck in there without being in charge.

All this on top of the general fear they all have of being discovered by the guards before they escape, and the reprisals that would entail.