Confusion in Guerrero kidnap case

CHILPANCINGO: At least 12 people have been kidnapped in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero in the same municipality where federal authorities say 43 college students were killed and burned by a drug cartel in September.

There were conflicting reports on Saturday regarding how many were taken and whether some were workers for Media Luna, a Canadian-owned gold mining project in the municipality of Cocula, where police officers were charged with participating in the student killings.

A state prosecutor’s spokesmen said 12 people were taken, including mine workers. A second government official claimed 19 abductions with eight later released.

Both requested anonymity because the case had not been officially announced yet. The state official said kidnappers disguised themselves as police or military officers.

Fred Stanford, the president of Toronto-based Torex Gold Resources Inc, which owns the mine, denies reports that any mine employees were abducted. Mr Stanford said that nine of his workers who were allegedly kidnapped were not,and that he had conflicting information on a 10th employee.

“One may be involved, but because of a family matter. It has nothing to do with the mine,” said Mr Stanford.

Torex Gold has about 250 employees in the area and at least 1,000 more who are contract workers, according to Mr Stanford.

Meanwhile in northern Mexico, a television station in the border city of Matamoros, in Tamaulipas state, was hit by a grenade last Friday, leaving two security guards injured.

The guards were in the parking lot of the Televisa station when they were bombarded with shards from the explosion, said state spokesman Rafael Luque. Accomplices blocked roads to facilitate the attackers’ escape, Mr Luque said. They detonated another device but it did no damage, he said.

The attack came after a week of violence in a Mexican border city just across from Brownsville, Texas.

Subsequently Enrique Juarez Torres, the editor of El Manana in Matamoros, was kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel and released on Wednesday for reporting on the gunfights that left nine people dead. Since last weekend at least 15 people have been killed by cartel violence.