The mother of former Major League Baseball pitcher Victor Zambrano was rescued after a three-day kidnapping ordeal, Venezuelan authorities said on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Mendez Zambrano, 56, was rescued late on Tuesday during a “commando-style operation” in the central state of Aragua, federal police chief Wilmer Flores Trosel said.
Zambrano, who enjoyed a seven-year Major League career to 2007, said having his mother alongside him again was a “great joy.”
“I never thought we could be together again so soon,” he told reporters.
Trosel said Mendez Zambrano was held in a makeshift dwelling near a highway, where she was only once offered food.
Three men have been detained, including two brothers and one man wanted for homicide, Trosel said.
He said a fourth suspect has been identified, a 24-year-old man wanted nationally for homicide and robbery.
Police said seven armed men burst into Mendez Zambrano’s home at her son’s farm near Maracay on Sunday morning and kidnapped her because they didn’t find large amounts of cash and jewelry.
Zambrano’s mother was abducted nine days after the former big league pitcher’s cousin, Richard Mendez Zambrano, was kidnapped and later killed. Police have declined to comment on whether the two incidents were related.
Crime is rampant in Venezuela and the families of wealthy athletes are periodically targeted by criminals.
Another former MLB player, Jose Castillo, was attacked by armed men on motorcycles as he left his luxury hotel in a taxi on Tuesday.
“They stopped the car and those accompanying them entered with two guns, and pointed them at me so that I’d give them my gold chain and wedding ring,” Castillo said.
Castillo, who played in the MLB from 2004 until last year, plays for the Caracas Lions.
In June, Colorado catcher Yorvit Torrealba’s son and brother-in-law were kidnapped and released a day later.
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