Mexican football star Alan Pulido disarmed kidnapper in daring escape

· Olympiakos player snatched in Ciudad Victoria on Saturday night
· State prosecutor says striker called authorities with captor's phone

Posted Tuesday, May 31, 2016 by theguardian.com

Alan Pulido is seen next to Tamaulipas state governor Egidio Torre Cantu after Pulido's rescue.

The Mexican footballer Alan Pulido, who was kidnapped and held for 24 hours over the weekend, escaped his captors by disarming and taking a mobile phone away from one of them, then calling the police, according to an official summary report obtained the Guardian.

The report, a summary of three phone calls to emergency operators, appears to contradict initial reports that Pulido was freed by the police.

It describes how Pulido found himself alone with one of his three kidnappers and wrested a .50 calibre weapon away from him. Pulido originally asked the operator to trace the call and can be heard beating his captor, demanding that he say the street name correctly.

Pulido was unable to leave the safe house as the doors were locked, though he stuck his head out the window and described a nearby antenna, that he was in a two-storey home and that there were two cars parked outside.

In one of the calls, Pulido said police were outside the safe house and wanted the officers informed someone inside was contacting emergency officials. The operator asked him to fire the pistol so the authorities knew they were in the correct spot, but Pulido said the weapon was not loaded.

Police officers started firing at one point, prompting Pulido to offer a description of his attire – shorts and a multi-coloured singlet – so he wouldn't be confused with his captor.

Press photos showed Pulido, 25, with a bandaged right hand from breaking a window. In a Twitter message on Monday afternoon Pulido thanked the authorities for finding him, and fans for their prayers. "Thanks to everyone for their prayers, they helped us a lot in this terrible experience us a lot in this terrible experience of our lives that we do not wish on anyone."

Tamaulipas state prosecutor Ismael Quintanilla first said Pulido was rescued at around midnight on Sunday, after he was able to alert authorities to his whereabouts via a mobile phone call.

Quintanilla later told reporters Pulido had authored his own rescue, then contacted the authorities.

Press photos showed Pulido, 25, with a bandaged right hand, reportedly sustained when breaking windows in the house in which he was held. He was expected to speak to the press later on Monday.

The striker, who plays for Olympiakos in Greece and has represented Mexico but is not in the squad for the forthcoming Copa America, was abducted after leaving a party with his girlfriend in his hometown of Ciudad Victoria, some 200 miles south of the Texas border.

Family and state officials said his captors intercepted the BMW he was driving, pulled Pulido out and fled the scene. Pulido's girlfriend notified the authorities. Quintanilla said the first call requesting a ransom came at 1.30pm on Sunday, Mexican media reported.

Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas, is a city disputed by rival factions of the hyper-violent Los Zetas cartel. Authorities detained a suspect in the Pulido kidnapping, who was accused of belonging to Los Zetas.

The kidnapping of an international footballer attracted worldwide attention and again cast attention on insecurity in Mexico, and especially Tamaulipas, which has been consumed by organized crime over the past six years, as warring drug cartels dispute a territory coveted for the carrying of contraband to the US.

Tamaulipas leads the country in kidnapping, according to federal government statistics. The online news organization Animal Politico reported that the incidence of abduction in the city has increased 360% between 2010 and 2015.

"The little news [on security] that comes out of Victoria and other crime-ridden cities in Tamaulipas is very watered down, since criminal groups have muzzled the press," said Jorge Kawas, a security analyst based in Monterrey.

Kawas said official statistics were low, as most kidnappings remained unreported and families expressed fears that police are sometimes complicit. An annual victimization survey from the Mexican statistics survey INEGI estimated the number of kidnappings nationwide in 2014 at between 83,000 and 116,000.

Mexicans reacted with relief to news of the rescue of Pulido, whose kidnapping was considered so sensitive that no mention of it was made during the Mexican league's championship match in Monterrey on Sunday.

The speed of the rescue also raised uncomfortable questions on social media sites, where some wondered how Pulido was found so quickly in a country with countless victims and in a state that will hold elections on 5 June, which could replace the party in power for the first time in 86 years.

"When we knew who it was we knew that it was going to generate a lot of pressure," Quintanilla said, according to Animal Politico.

Security analysts expressed incredulity.

Kawas said: "I've never heard of authorities acting so fast and coordinated to solve any problem, let alone a kidnapping."

Another analyst, Alejandro Hope, tweeted: "Alan Pulido was victim of the most inept kidnappers on the planet or there is something that they haven't wanted to reveal."