09/15/11 — It has been eleven days since the popular Guerrero congressman, Moisés Villanueva de la Luz, disappeared while visiting his constituencies. A Guerrero native, Villanueva de la Luz serves on the Commission on Population, Borders and Migration Affairs, and Agrarian Reform in the lower house. Villanueva de la Luz and his driver were last heard from on September 4, when they left Deputy Javier Morales Prieto’s birthday party in Tlapa, a town in his southern state, bound for the central city of Puebla. Since that day, no information has surfaced about his whereabouts.
The case has not yet been deemed a kidnapping because the captors have not contacted Villanueva de la Luz’s family demanding a ransom, which is common in political kidnappings. State leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI), Efrén Leyva Acevedo, recently stated, “We hope that those responsible for this disappearance get in contact with the family, which so far has not happened.” Leaders of the PRI had planned to hold another press conference Tuesday to publicly announce the disappearance of Villanueva and his driver, but chose to instead quietly open an investigation through the Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR). The Office of Special Investigations on Organized Crime (Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia, SIEDO) has since taken up the lead as the main office investigating the disappearance.
Following the alleged kidnapping, the congressman’s car was later found abandoned, reported fellow legislator PRI deputy Cuauhtemoc Salgado, and the vehicle did not show any signs of force or violence. According to police reports, Leyva Acevedo said that Villanueva de la Luz never left the state of Guerrero and possibly not even Tlapa de Comonfort. Salgado remarked that the kidnapping of the congressman is “clear evidence that violence does not distinguish stands of political parties, social classes or religions… We want (him) back soon, safe and sound with his family, like many in Guerrero that currently are being sought by their families, who have suffered kidnappings.” The same day Villanueva de la Luz went missing, nine people were executed in different events in two municipalities of Guerrero, seven of them in Acapulco and two in Tecpan de Galeana.
Sources:
“Desaparece legislador en Guerrero.” Reforma. September 14, 2011.
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