16 kidnapped security workers freed in Mexico
Chiapa de Corzo, Mexico, June 30 (EFE).- The 16 state security ministry workers kidnapped by an armed group in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were freed on Friday, authorities and relatives reported.
“I want to inform the people of Chiapas and Mexico that the 16 kidnapped (security secretariat) colleagues have been released this afternoon,” Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandon wrote on Twitter.
The workers said that they had been somewhere mountainous but that they do not know the exact location, and that one of them drove them all back.
“I feel very happy. I was able to hug him,” the sister of one of the kidnapped workers told EFE.
The son of another of the victims assured that “everyone” returned.
Authorities reported that the 16 were being taken to hospitals by ambulances and helicopter for evaluation.
On Tuesday, the 16 government workers were taken by an armed group from the bus in which they were traveling in the municipality of Ocozocoautla, on the way to state capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
The situation intensified on Wednesday when the kidnappers published videos on social media in which they demanded that Governor Escandon fire the chiefs of the border police, Yahir Hernandez, and state police, Maro Antonio Burguete, as well as the undersecretary of public safety, Francisco Orantes.
The Chiapas government had not yet managed to consolidate negotiations with the kidnappers for the release of the workers so their families took to protesting and blocking roads to demand that they be returned alive.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was emphatic on Thursday and called for the unconditional release of the officials. EFE
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