Lawmaker kidnapped in Mexico

Mexico City, May 8 (IANS/EFE) A state legislator was kidnapped by gunmen at a casino in Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, officials said.

Olaguer Hernandez Flores was abducted around 11 p.m. Tuesday at the Emotion casino in the Galerias de Chilpancingo mall, the Guerrero attorney general's office said in a statement Wednesday.

Federal and state security officials are investigating "the illegal privation of liberty of the legislator" from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the AG's office said.

The criminal organisations operating in Mexico have kidnapped and murdered numerous politicians and businessmen in recent years.

Abductions have spiked in Guerrero, a trend that has affected the rest of Mexico.

Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre's administration announced the creation of a special unit to deal with kidnappings last October.

A total of 1,695 kidnappings were reported in Mexico in 2013, a figure that was up 20 percent from the previous year, the National Public Safety System said.

An unknown number of kidnappings, however, go unreported, with some estimates putting the figure at 90 percent.

--IANS/EFE

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