Six Mexican Fieldworkers Found, Three Still Missing

Six field workers from Mexican polling firm Consulta Mitofsky have been found safe, after vanishing on Saturday in the violent state of Michoacan. However, three employees from research firm Parametria are still missing.

The Consulta Mitofsky employees were reportedly abducted on Saturday near the city of Apatzingan, while the Parametria workers went missing in the same area on Monday, after conducting home interviews with potential voters about local mayoral and legislative races.

The Parametria employees had been conducting a 'mirror' poll to endorse one already completed by the Consulta Mitofsky staff in advance of the forthcoming Mexico State elections. Both firms say their employees have experience of working in the rural areas, which are plagued by drug-related cartel violence.

Following the release of Consulta Mitofsky's six staff earlier today, the firm's President Roy Campos said on national radio that the six - five men and a woman - 'are safe and with their families'.

Mexico's federal and state police are currently searching for Parametria's three missing staff using helicopters and patrol vehicles.

The two research firms believe that some parts of the country are too dangerous for them to work in, such as the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas, where the Gulf and Zetas cartels are at war.

'There are many places where we haven't been for some time,' explained Parametria Director Francisco Abundis. 'But in Apatzingan and La Cofradia, we had already been working there for a month or a month and a half and nothing happened.'

The firms have issued public appeals to anyone who might be holding the three workers, in case they have been mistaken for government agents.

Web sites: www.consulta.mx and www.parametria.com.mx .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.