Mexican gang calls for the release of kidnapped singer and demands the firing of three cops

A cartel is calling for the dismissal of three high-ranking police officials and the release of a kidnapped singer in exchange for the freedom of 16 police department employees they abducted on a highway in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

The demands were made Wednesday after the group released three videos, two of which showed the captors making the requests on behalf of the suspects.

One of the abducted men can be seen on video being forced to call out Marco Antonio Burguete Ramos, director of the State Preventive Police; Francisco Javier Orantes Abadía, Undersecretary of Public Safety and Citizen Protection; and Roberto Jair Hernández, director of the State Border Police. He then instructs the men to reach out to their boss, Jesús 'El Pulsera, Machado, a Sinaloa Cartel cell leader, so that they can set free Nayeli Cinco, a 30-year-old mother-of-two who was kidnapped from her home in Tuxtla Gutierrez on June 22.

'She has nothing to do with us and we don't have to pay for the sins of other,' the man said. 'Please, please, please, we don't have to pay for the sins of others.'

According to local reports, the kidnapping of the 16 police workers was carried out by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in response to Cinco's abduction.

Cinco's partner Fredy Ruiz allegedly reports to Juan Valdovinos, a high-ranking Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader.

Law enforcement sources said Valdovinos had been paying Hernández Teheran in exchange for protection. But the official stopped accepting payment after he reportedly started working Machado.

Workers from a police department in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas were seen on a video released Wednesday by their kidnappers. The group, 16 workers in all, were abducted Tuesday from the bus they were being transported on

A gang member called on the Mexican government to fire three high-ranking law enforcement officials who he accused of working for Sinaloa Cartel cell in the southern state of Chiapas

Nayelo Cinco was kidnapped from her home in Tuxtla Gutierrez, a city in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Local media outlets have reported that her partner is a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel

In two additional videos, one of the staffers and a masked gang member call for the immediate removal of Burguete Ramos, Orantes Abadía and Hernández, alleging that they worked for the cartel.

'The problem is with the state police, there is no problem with other types of authorities, we look forward to your prompt cooperation,' the gang member said.

The police staffers were kidnapped Tuesday when their bus was intercepted on a highway in Tapachula, which borders Guatemala.

Authorities initially reported that the 14 male employees were abducted and that 17 female workers were released. The number of kidnapped men was upped to 16 on Wednesday.

Two men found near the kidnapping scene were taken into custody for questioning.

More than 1,000 state and federal law enforcement officers have been involved in the search for the employees.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the gang will first have to release the police department employees who were kidnapped Tuesday before the high-ranking law enforcement officials can be investigated 

The police workers were kidnapped on a highway that connects Ocozocoautla and Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital

President Manuel Andrés López Obrador ordered the gang to release the police workers during his daily press briefing Thursday morning.

While he said that he wouldn't fire the three officials, he agreed to have them investigated for any possible ties to organized crime.

'First we want them to release because that is not the way, we are not going to accept that, they are committing crimes by having them kidnapped,' the leftist leader said.

'They have been kidnapped and they are innocent, that's clear, and none of it is a matter of the local authority, it is a matter that has to do with everyone, it is a matter that has to do with the public authority, a matter that has to do with all Mexicans, we cannot allow that.'

Violence in the Mexican border region with Guatemala has escalated in recent months amid a territorial dispute between the Sinaloa Cartel, which has dominated the area, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

It's unknown if the gang that kidnapped the workers is allied with any cartel. But it did say in a video that it had no interest in taking control of the drug trade in Tapachula.