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Mexican football star Alan Pulido rescued after kidnapping Mexican football star Alan Pulido rescued 24 hours after kidnapping
(about 7 hours later)
Mexican security forces have rescued football star Alan Pulido, who was found “safe and sound” hours after he was kidnapped in his crime-plagued home state of Tamaulipas, authorities have said. The Mexican footballer Alan Pulido has been rescued some 24 hours after being abducted, the Tamaulipas state government said in a statement.
Pulido, a former national team forward who plays for Greek club Olympiakos, declared he was “very well, very well, thank God” as he appeared alongside the state governor, Egidio Torre Cantú, at a brief news conference on Monday. Pulido was rescued at around midnight on Sunday, the statement said, in a joint operation by state and federal security forces. He was undergoing medical examinations.
The 25-year-old player was wearing a multicoloured sleeveless shirt and shorts as he appeared before the cameras. Tamaulipas state prosecutor Ismael Quintanilla told reporters on Monday morning that Pulido, who was kidnapped on Saturday night, was able to call police and alert them to his whereabouts. Press photos showed Pulido, 25, with a bandaged right hand and wearing mismatched Bermuda shorts and a sleeveless shirt as he spoke with the Tamaulipas governor, Egidio Torre Cantú.
Related: Mexican footballer Alan Pulido's kidnapping sets off massive manhuntRelated: Mexican footballer Alan Pulido's kidnapping sets off massive manhunt
Pulido was rescued “safe and sound … shortly before midnight” on Sunday by state and federal forces, the Tamaulipas government said in a statement, without providing details about the operation. Pulido, a striker who plays for Olympiakos in Greece and has represented Mexico, was abducted after leaving a party with his girlfriend in his hometown of Ciudad Victoria, some 200 miles south of the Texas border. Though information on the vehicle Pulido was driving has not been made public, a state security source told the Guardian he was driving a BMW.
The footballer had undergone a medical exam, the statement said. Family and state officials said his captors intercepted the vehicle, pulled Pulido out by force and fled the scene.
Torre Cantú told reporters that the authorities were going over the investigation and would provide more details later on. “The most important thing is that he is here, he’s with us,” the governor said. Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas, is a city disputed by rival factions of the hyper-violent Los Zetas cartel.
Family members told authorities that six armed men snatched Pulido in his hometown of Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, as he returned from a party. The kidnapping of an international footballer attracted worldwide attention and again cast attention on insecurity in Mexico, and especially Tamaulipas, which has been consumed by organized crime over the past six years, as warring drug cartels dispute a territory coveted for carrying contraband to the US.
The government statement said the kidnapping took place on Saturday night, contrary to previous reports that it had happened at dawn on Sunday. Tamaulipas leads the country in kidnapping, according to federal government statistics. The online news organization Animal Politico reported that the incidence of abduction in the city has increased 360% between 2010 and 2015.
Pulido played for Mexico and was included in the 2014 World Cup squad. His kidnapping turned the spotlight on security problems in Mexico and especially Tamaulipas state, which occupies the country’s north-eastern corner and has been beset by violence and crimes such as kidnap and extortion. “The little news [on security] that comes out of Victoria and other crime-ridden cities in Tamaulipas is very watered down, since criminal groups have muzzled the press,” said Jorge Kawas, a security analyst based in the city of Monterrey.
Kawas said official statistics were low, as most kidnappings remained unreported and families expressed fears that the police are sometimes complicit. An annual victimization survey from the Mexican statistics survey INEGI estimated the number of kidnappings nationwide in 2014 at between 83,000 and 116,000.
Mexicans reacted with relief to news of the rescue of Pulido, whose kidnapping was considered so sensitive that no mention of it was made during the Mexican league’s championship match in Monterrey on Sunday.
The speed of his rescue also raised uncomfortable questions on social media sites, where some wondered how Pulido was found so quickly in a country with countless victims and in a state that will hold elections on 5 June, which could replace the party in power for the first time in 86 years.
“Alan Pulido was victim of the most inept kidnappers on the planet or there is something that they haven’t wanted to reveal,” tweeted Alejandro Hope, a Mexican security analyst.