Federal police rescued two kidnapped news cameramen in northern Mexico on Saturday, five days after they were seized by drug traffickers in a bid to get their employers to broadcast cartel messages.
Mexican Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said Javier Canales of Milenio Multimedia Television and Alejandro Hernandez of Televisa were freed before dawn on Saturday in the city of Gomez Palacio, where the men had been held in a residential area.
At a press conference in Mexico City, Garcia Luna, who was accompanied by the two cameramen, said the Sinaloa drug cartel was responsible for the abductions and that the kidnappers escaped.
“What this criminal group sought ... was the transmission of organized crime messages that would have an impact on the community,” Garcia Luna said.
Shortly after the abductions, the kidnappers demanded that the journalists’ employers broadcast videos of two police officers and two civilians being interrogated and accusing officials of favoring the rival Zetas drug gang.
Garcia Luna said the federal police decided to raid the house after the kidnappers failed to free the cameramen.
Hernandez said his captors tortured them physically and psychologically.
“All day and all night, they would intimidate us psychologically and it was very hard,” Hernandez said.
He said he was beaten on Friday with a wooden board.
“Here are the scars,” Hernandez said pointing to a bloody gauze on his head.
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