Mexican Police Free Reporters Nabbed By Drug Gang

MEXICO CITY (July 31) -- Federal police rescued two kidnapped cameramen in northern Mexico on Saturday, five days after they were nabbed by drug traffickers.

Javier Canales of Multimedios Television and Alejandro Hernandez of Televisa were freed before dawn in the city of Gomez Palacio, the Public Safety Department said in a statement. The agency did not immediately give details of the rescue but scheduled a news conference for later.

Multimedios anchor Ciro Gomez Leyva broke into regular programming earlier Saturday to announce the news.

The cameramen were abducted Monday along with a Televisa reporter after leaving a prison where they had covered a protest against the arrest of its warden.

The reporter, Hector Gordoa, was released Thursday.

A journalist for a local newspaper was abducted the same day in a separate incident in Gomez Palacio. It was not immediately clear whether he was also rescued.

Shortly after the kidnappings, the abductors demanded that the journalists' employers broadcast videos of two police officers and two civilians being interrogated and accusing officials of favoring the Zetas drug gang.

Authorities say a dispute between the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel has resulted in rising violence in the Laguna region, which includes Gomez Palacio and Lerdo in Durango state and Torreon in neighboring Coahuila

Milenio Television aired the three 15-minute segments Tuesday.

Local journalists in Mexico have long been under siege from drug traffickers, but the kidnapping of reporters working for national television networks shocked the country.

Media advocates called the new tactic an escalation of a campaign by drug gangs to control information.

Press freedom groups say Mexico is one of the deadliest countries for journalists. More than 60 have been killed there since 2000, according to the National Human Rights Commission, and many have been harassed and threatened by drug gangs.