Anti-kidnap expert kidnapped in Mexico

Mexican gunmen have kidnapped a US security consultant who negotiated the release of dozens of kidnap victims in Latin America, security officials said yesterday.

Gunmen abducted Felix Batista outside a restaurant last Wednesday in the relatively safe northern industrial city of Saltillo in Coahuila state, a source from the state attorney general's office said.

Mexican media said Mr Batista is a 55-year-old former FBI agent. The US embassy in Mexico City said it was investigating and declined to comment further.

"He may have been targeted by organised crime in an attempt to show their power. Saltillo is not a kidnapping hot spot," said the source, who declined to be named.

Mr Batista, often quoted in US media and credited with negotiating the release of victims abducted by Colombian rebels, was in Coahuila state near Texas giving seminars on security, the source said.

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. Coahuila lawmakers last week sent a bill to Mexico's Congress to change the constitution to allow the death penalty for kidnappers who kill their captives.

More than 5,300 people have been killed in drug violence across Mexico this year as cartels fight each other over smuggling routes to the United States and clash with Mexican security forces seeking to restore security.

Drug gangs are often also involved in kidnappings.