Three Missing Mexican Pollsters Freed

The three missing fieldworkers from Mexican polling firm Parametria have been released fit and well following their disappearance on Monday, just hours after six from research firm Consulta Mitofsky also turned up unharmed.

The Consulta Mitofsky employees were reportedly abducted on Saturday near the city of Apatzingan - an area plagued by drug-related cartel violence. Parametria's three workers went missing in the same area on Monday, after conducting home interviews with potential voters about local mayoral and legislative races.

All nine are now back safely, having been released by their captors on a roadside, in an area being disputed between two cartels.

Public Safety Secretary General Manuel Garcia Ruiz said that none of the polling workers had been beaten and no ransom demand had been made.

Garcia Ruiz accused the polling firms of not having taken sufficient security measures, such as announcing their workers' presence before they arrived in the area.

Parametria director Francisco Abundis (pictured) confirmed that his three workers had not been hurt by their armed captors, but are shaken up. He added that the country's polling firms are all now evaluating how to avoid future dangers.

'Unfortunately we've run into a situation in which we don't know how we're going to be able to work,' he stated. 'Our options are either an information blackout or to continue working in risky situations.'

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.