From Fox:
MEXICO CITY — A well-known U.S. anti-kidnapping expert has himself fallen victim to Mexico’s wave of abductions as unidentified assailants snatched him from a street in the northern city of Saltillo, one of his employers said Monday.
The kidnapping of U.S. security consultant Felix Batista — who was in Saltillo to offer advice on how to confront abductions for ransom — showed how bold Mexico’s kidnappers have become. Attacks on U.S. anti-crime consultants have largely been the stuff of movies.
“We have notified the FBI and Mexican authorities, and they are working on the case,” said Charlie LeBlanc, the president of the Houston, Texas-based security firm ASI Global LLC., where Batista is a consultant. “What we are doing is we’re offering our support to the family and hoping for the best.”
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said it would not comment on the case, and LeBlanc would not say whether any ransom demand had been received, saying “I’d rather not talk about it right now.”
LeBlanc said Batista “was abducted on the evening of Dec. 10 by unknown assailants” in Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila state. He said Batista had his own security business and that “he was in Mexico for business that wasn’t associated with our company.”
[…]
A profile of Batista posted — and later removed — from the ASI Global Web site described him as “the primary case officer for all cases throughout the Latin American region.”
The site said Batista was a former U.S. Army major who is “known for conducting in-depth threat assessments, the successful resolution of nearly 100 kidnap and ransom cases (many on behalf of major insurance carriers) and investigations.”
The company denied local media reports that Batista was a former FBI agent, and warned those reports could put his life at risk.
“We at ASI are very concerned for Felix’s safety and would like to take this opportunity of stating categorically that Felix has never been an agent in the FBI,” the company said in a statement. “Irresponsible and erroneous reporting in the press could pose a very real threat to Felix’s life and the safe resolution of this terrible situation and must be corrected.”
The seizure seems to echo the plot of a 2004 movie, “Man on Fire,” in which Denzel Washington played a U.S. security consultant who takes on Mexican kidnappers and is abducted himself.
Batista helped negotiate the release of hostages from FARC and given their connection to the drug trade we shouldn’t rule out cartels or kidnapping gangs being hired or conscripted to get back at Batista.
Via Michelle Malkin this report puts forward the theory the kidnapping was simply a message to the world that Mexico belongs to the Cartels:
Batista, a Miami-based Cuban American credited with negotiating the release of victims abducted by Colombian rebels, was snatched after he stepped outside the restaurant, answering a call on his cellular phone, Mexican media said.
The U.S. embassy in Mexico City said it was investigating and declined to comment further.
“He may have been targeted by organized crime in an attempt to show their power. Saltillo is not a kidnapping hot spot,” said a source at Coahuila state attorney general’s office.
Batista’s employer, Houston-based ASI Global, denied Mexican media reports that he was a former FBI agent and said he was on a private trip in Coahuila state near Texas, giving seminars on security.
“We have requested help from the FBI and the Mexican authorities,” said ASI Global’s President Charlie LeBlanc.
Hundreds of people are kidnapped in Mexico every year and the number of victims has increased sharply as drug gangs, under pressure from President Felipe Calderon’s army-backed crackdown, seek new revenues to fund their operations.
Here’s a question for legalization advocates. If the theory that legalization will simply break the gangs as they go into the poor house is one of your central arguments, how’s that last sentence grab you?
