Sitting stern-faced and staring into a camera, the mother of a notorious Mexican gang leader, Raybel Jacobo de Almonte, told her son in no uncertain terms to release his latest kidnap victim.
“If you have him, I know that you are going to hand him over. Do it, please,” was the message.
But it wasn’t just a good old-fashioned telling off which led to the release — Almonte’s mother was part of the bargain in the most unlikely of stand-offs in a state riddled with violence and abductions.
Residents of a town tired of daily — and often deadly — kidnappings by Los Tequileros (the Tequila Drinkers) got so fed up that they responded to the latest abduction of a local engineer by snatching Almonte’s mother to use as a bargaining chip.
Hundreds of soldiers and police were dispatched to the small town in San Miguel Totolapan, in the southern Guerrero state, to mediate in the unusual stalemate this week, which eventually ended with the peaceful release of all those detained.
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The stand-off began when Isauro de Paz Duque became the latest civilian to be picked off by Los Tequileros, who have made a tidy business of kidnapping in the remote region about 100 miles north of Acapulco.
Residents rose up and formed their own vigilante group and detained about 20 people including the mother of Almonte, who is known as El Tequilero (the Tequila Drinker).
The residents at first posted a video from the kidnapped engineer’s wife demanding his release. They then stepped up their demands by releasing another video showing Maria Felix de Almonte Salgado, El Tequilero’s mother, in a room with her hands bound, ordering her son to do as he was told.
“Son, if you have [De Paz], hand him over, please. If you have him, I know that you are going to hand him over. Do it, please,” she said
The Guerrero state government said in a statement that all those being held had been released peacefully and had returned to their families.
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“It is satisfying to inform that the engineer Isauro de Paz Duque, who was kidnapped, is now with his family,” Governor Héctor Astudillo said on Twitter.
The villagers were shown carrying weapons on a video later circulated on YouTube, where they explained why they took up arms.
“They have humiliated us. They have killed our families and we won’t let it happen again,” one of the vigilantes said.
Drug trafficking, kidnapping and violence are rife in Guerrero and the neighbouring Michoacan state, where trust in the authorities has been waning.
Citizen militias have been formed in recent years as farmers and villagers have sought to take matters into their own hands.