MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2023) Mexican security forces have managed to locate and release Ricardo Villanueva Ake, a police reporter at local newspaper Presente Veracruz, a day after he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen, the Mexican State Commission for the Attention and Protection of Journalists (CEAPP) said.
On Monday evening, 27-year-old Villanueva was kidnapped by masked gunmen from a workshop where he was repairing his bike. Shortly after the incident, the local authorities launched a search operation.
"#CEAPP informs that reporter Ricardo Villanueva Ake, who had been illegally deprived of liberty on Monday, was found alive," the commission tweeted on Tuesday.
It added that a series of arrests and confiscations had been conducted during the operation of the security forces, though without specifying any details. The regional prosecutor's office continues to investigate the kidnapping and is searching for those responsible, the statement read.
Jesus Villanueva, father of the kidnapped journalist and the director of Presente Veracruz, told reporters that the local police had warned his son of a possible abduction before it took place.
Last year, 12 journalists were killed in Mexico � the repetition of the 2017 record number, UK-based international human rights organization Article 19 said. In just over four years, 37 media workers were killed in the country.
