Mexican townsfolk release mother of drug boss

MEXICO CITY—One of the stranger chapters of Mexico’s drug war had a relative happy ending on Wednesday, after residents of a southern town freed the mother of a drug gang leader and the criminals released a kidnapped businessman.

The releases were part of a solution negotiated by the Guerrero state government to ease a tense standoff in Totolapan, a town sitting in one of the prime opiumproducing regions of Mexico.

Vigilantes angered by kidnappings and killings took up arms on Monday and abducted the mother of a drug gang boss known as “El Tequilero.”

They then offered to free her and about 20 suspected members of the Tequileros gang, but they demanded the release of a local construction engineer snatched by the gang on Sunday.

The Guerrero government issued a statement late Wednesday saying both the mother and the kidnapped businessman, Engr. Isauro de Paz Duque, had been turned loose.

“After his family received Isauro de Paz Duque, they and a group of townspeople who have been supporting them, turned over to police Mrs. Maria Felix de Almonte Salgado, the mother of the presumed leader of the kidnapping gang,” the statement said.

The government had given slightly different spellings of those names on Tuesday.

“It is expected that in the coming hours, 19 more people who are being held by the townsfolk of San Miguel Totolapan will be turned over to authorities,” the statement added.

The state government sent about 220 soldiers and police to try to defuse the situation in Totolapan, which has been effectively controlled for years by the Tequileros drug gang.