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Kidnapped Mexican politician freed after 7 months

20 December 2010 22:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, a prominent former Mexican presidential candidate, has been released seven months after being kidnapped, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Fernandez, a member of President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party, spoke to waiting media in front of his house in Mexico City on Monday.
"I am fine, thank god," said the former PAN senator, sporting a beard now turned completely white. "I am strong and my life will continue being the same."
Cigar-chomping Fernandez was abducted in central Mexico in May as he arrived at his ranch late at night. His car was found with some of his belongings inside and blood on a pair of scissors thrown on the ground nearby.
In the following months, his captors released photos of a blindfolded, bearded man who greatly resembled Fernandez in an apparent move to put pressure the politician’s family to pay for his release.
Fernandez, known for his outspoken personality, is often called "Jefe Diego" (Boss Diego). He was a key figure in strengthening the PAN in the run-up to it winning the presidency in 2000 and ending seven decades of one-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Kidnapping of executives, public officials and ordinary citizens for ransom is rife in Mexico, often ending in the deaths of victims.
Fernandez has close ties to key government figures such as Attorney General Arturo Chavez but does not currently hold any public office.