MEXICO CITY (Portal) – Sixteen employees of Mexico’s State Security Ministry were released on Friday after they were kidnapped in the southern state of Chiapas earlier this week, authorities said after a three-day search.
“Everyone is fine,” said a spokesman for the ministry.
The employees, all men, were abducted by an armed group on a highway near the state capital Tuxtla Gutierrez on Tuesday after leaving their jobs, authorities said.
More than 1,000 federal and state officials participated in the search, and two people were arrested earlier this week.
Local news outlets showed images of families gathered outside the ministry’s offices and bursting into tears as they met with the abductees. A woman was shown sobbing and screaming, “Thank you, Lord!”
On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Chiapas Ministry of Security told Portal that the employees were not police officers but administrative employees, adding: “Nothing like this has ever happened.”
The abducted staff members were caught on video shortly after their disappearance, eyes on the floor, as they stood side by side while one of them delivered the message that they would be released in exchange for resignations from senior posts at the ministry.
The ministry confirmed that the people in the video were the prisoners.
The terms of their release remain unclear.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Text by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Sarah Morland and Leslie Adler)