Avellon Williams
MEXICO- An armed group has kidnapped 14 administrative employees of the state security ministry in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
Tuesday’s accident occurred on the highway connecting Tuxtla Gutierrez with Ocozocoautla, about 34.4km (22 miles) west of the state capital.
A statement from the state security agency said all victims were men and worked in administration at a police station.
“Nothing like this has ever happened,” a ministry spokesperson told the Reuters news agency, adding that the motive for the kidnapping was being investigated.
Agents from both the federal and state governments are involved in the search.
The alleged kidnapping was captured on video by some Mexican news outlets, showing several vehicles stopped on the highway, their doors open, and men with guns pointing at the passengers.
As a result, the state prosecutor’s office is investigating whether the videos are authentic; at least three trucks were shown blocking the highway in the video.
According to the newspaper Reforma, the armed men took away the employees’ mobile phones and forced them to lie on the ground. According to the report, the women in the group were allowed to walk freely.
Mexico City is about 700km (435 miles) southwest of Tuxtla Gutierrez.
Last Friday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Chiapas had “peace, tranquility” in general, minimizing the violence in the area.
Before the president’s visit, an official from the Attorney General’s Office was seriously injured in an attack in Tuxtla Gutiérrez that killed the person with her.
A confrontation between members of the military and suspected organized crime members in Ocozocoautla left one member of the National Guard and one civilian dead on June 19.
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