16 police officers released after kidnapping in southern Mexico

After three days of detention, 16 police officers abducted in southern Mexico were released on Friday.

Rutilio Escandón, Governor of the State of Chiapas, confirmed her return on Twitter.

“I would like to inform the people of Chiapas and Mexico that the 16 colleagues who were kidnapped were released this afternoon,” he wrote in the post.

No information was given about the circumstances of her release. The kidnappers had demanded the firing of three local police officers in Chiapas and the release of local singer Neyeli Cinco, who was kidnapped by another gang last week.

The police officers were arrested Tuesday by gunmen in several vans who intercepted a police van on the Ocozocoautla-Tuxtla Gutiérrez highway. The gunmen took away all the male employees but left 17 women behind.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the group worked at a local prison, apparently as guards or administrative staff, although they are officially employed by the state police.

After the kidnapping, the authorities deployed more than 1,000 officers to search for the abductees.

However, the kidnapped men returned independently in a pickup truck and arrived at the state police headquarters in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, a prosecutor’s office official said. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.

Relatives who had camped outside the agency ran to hug their loved ones when they saw them get out of the vehicle.

southern mexico has seen Violence has escalated in recent months, with drug blockades of major highways, confrontations, executions, enforced disappearances and other crimes. Officials blame a territorial dispute between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.