US kidnap negotiator abducted in Mexico

A US SECURITY consultant who negotiated the release of dozens of kidnap victims in Latin America has himself been kidnapped by masked gunmen in northern Mexico.

The gunmen abducted Felix Batista outside a restaurant last Wednesday in the relatively safe industrial city of Saltillo in Coahuila state, Mexican authorities and his employer, security consultancy ASI Global, revealed yesterday.

Batista, a Miami-based Cuban-American credited with negotiating the release of people abducted by Colombian rebels, was kidnapped after he stepped outside the restaurant while answering a call on his mobile phone, Mexican media said.

The US Embassy in Mexico city said it was investigating the case and declined to comment further.

“He may have been targeted by organised crime in an attempt to show their power. Saltillo is not a kidnapping hot spot,” said a source at Coahuila state attorney general’s office.

Batista’s Houston-based employer denied reports he was a former FBI agent and said he was in Coahuila state giving seminars on security.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Batista was never an FBI agent.

“We have requested help from the FBI and the Mexican authorities,” said ASI Global president Charlie LeBlanc.

Hundreds of people are kidnapped in Mexico every year and the number has increased sharply as drug gangs, under pressure from an army-backed crackdown, seek revenues to fund their operations.

Between 2001 and 2008, there were 5,140 reported kidnappings in Mexico, the country’s human rights ombudsman’s office said in a report released yesterday. It said only one of every four kidnappings are reported.

Close to 99% of all crimes in Mexico are left unsolved, said the ombudsman.

More than 5,300 people were killed in drug violence in Mexico this year, double those killed last year.

Coahuila lawmakers last week sent a bill to Mexico’s Congress to allow the death penalty for kidnappers who kill their captives.