Wage Deductions to Ransom Former Rector

(Acapulco, AN 30 November) Last Thursday the former rector of the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAG), Arturo Contreras Gómez, was kidnapped and is being held for ransom. The University made an appeal to employees, teachers, students and parents to contribute to a fund to pay the ransom so that Contreras could be returned unharmed. Yesterday, employees were permitted to designate a portion of their salary to be deducted for that purpose. Funds are also being raised in the Department of Natural Sciences, where Contreras currently serves as dean. According to family friends of the kidnap victim, the criminals holding the professor are claiming a ransom of $10 million pesos (about US$800,000 at current exchange rates).

University officials are quick to add that no one is pressuring anyone to contribute; the voluntary payroll deduction is simply an option for those who wish to help out. The campaign is to indicate a number of days’ pay for the cause, from 1 to several.

Unsurprisingly, the political candidates for governor have made pronouncements of solidarity in the case of the disappearance of Contreras, even though the current governor, Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo, has requested that the matter not be made a point for political campaigning.