Deputy kidnapped in northern Mexico

A local congressman was kidnapped in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, where several criminal groups operate, state authorities reported.

Deputy Vicente Verástegui Ostos of the National Action Party (PAN) was deprived of his freedom in the vicinity of the municipalities of Xicoténcatl and El Mante, the Prosecutor’s Office of this state in the north of the country said in a statement on Friday, without offering details of how. the event occurred. State security forces activated an operation to try to locate him.

The politician’s kidnapping occurs a few days after the brutal murder of Alejandro Arcosmayor of Chilpancingo, capital of the southern state of Guerrero. The authorities decided to send 250 members of the National Guard there to reinforce security.

The uniformed officers will give “greater certainty to our population, greater confidence that we can continue traveling throughout our municipality and our state,” said Gustavo Alarcón, the new mayor of that town, when reporting the arrival of the reinforcements on Friday. He was sworn in the day before.

Hundreds of residents took to the streets of Chilpancingo on Thursday to protest the murder of Arcos on October 6, just 6 days after taking office. The head of the 43-year-old official was found on the roof of an abandoned vehicle. The town, with nearly 300,000 inhabitants, has been facing a wave of violence for months due to the territorial fight between two organized crime groups, Los Ardillos and Los Tlacos.

The death of the opposition mayor occurred after three days before the secretary of the Chilpancingo city council was killed, and nine days after the murder of an army captain who was being profiled to be the mayor’s secretary of Public Security.

The Arcos case sparked great controversy and once again called into question the security policies of the Mexican authorities.

Amid the commotion, the president Claudia Sheinbaum presented her national security plan on Tuesdaywhich included some of the policies of his predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, including the development of social programs and the participation of the military in public security tasks.

Sheinbaum’s plan is based on four axes: attention to the causes of violence through social programs to prevent young people from being drawn into crime; the consolidation of the National Guard under the command of the army; the creation of a national intelligence and investigation system, and the coordinated work between the federal government, the states, the municipalities and the Public Ministry.

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels YouTube, WhatsApp and to newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram.