Politicians help family of man kidnapped in Mexico

Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen met with the family of Felix Batista — a Miami local who was kidnapped six months ago in Mexico — to discuss how the government can help bring Batista back home.

BY PERRY STEIN

pstein@MiamiHerald.com

The family of an American kidnapped in Mexico has teamed up with U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Sen. Bill Nelson with the hopes of bringing their relative back home safely to Miami.

Felix Batista, 53, went missing from a restaurant in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila about six months ago. Ironically, Batista specializes in resolving kidnapping cases and was in Mexico to speak to businessmen about avoiding abductions.

No ransom demand has been made and there has been no word of his whereabouts since his disappearance last December.

On Friday morning, Nelson and Ros-Lehtinen met with Batista’s family in Coral Gables to discuss the government’s efforts to solve the mysterious disappearance.

Nelson further stressed the importance of the government working to resolve this disappearance, and drew comparisons between this incident and the case of Robert Levinson — a retired FBI agent from Coral Springs who went missing in 2007 while researching a cigarette-smuggling case in Iran.

Batista is a constituent in Ros-Lehtinen’s 18th congressional district.

”This is such a sad case and that is why I have asked other members of the Florida congressional delegation to get involved,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement.

“We need to seek answers for the family and I am pleased that my colleague, Sen. Nelson, has joined this endeavor.”

Nelson said that he spoke with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about Batista and that the Obama administration is making it a priority.

”I personally spoke to Secretary of State Clinton about two weeks ago. I know she is using all the resources of the State Department, and next week I will be meeting with the attorney general to ask him to continue to have the FBI, and the other resources at his control, working the case,” Nelson told The Miami Herald.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Ros-Lehtinen urged Obama to seriously consider this matter because “Mr. Batista’s case tragically demonstrates the irrefutable threat that Mexico’s escalating narco-violence poses to the security of our own nation and citizens.”

ANOTHER CASE

Nelson further stressed the importance of the government working to resolve this disappearance, and drew comparisons between this incident and the case of Robert Levinson — a retired FBI agent from Coral Springs who went missing in 2007 while researching a cigarette-smuggling case in Iran.

via Politicians help family of man kidnapped in Mexico – Miami-Dade – MiamiHerald.com.