Cuban-American
Businessman-Activist
Kidnapped in Panama
The Associated Press
PANAMA CITY, Panama: A
Cuban-American
businessman on the board
of an influential
anti-Castro organization
has been kidnapped in
Panama, officials said
Wednesday.
The attorney general's
office said three police
officers have been
arrested in connection
with the abduction of
Cecilio Padron, and
authorities are
searching for two other
suspects.
The officers face
charges of depriving
someone of their
freedom, a less serious
charge than kidnapping
because no ransom has
been requested,
officials said.
Luis Martinez, a top
federal police
investigator, declined
to give details, saying
only that Padron, 66,
was kidnapped April 4.
He was last seen in an
exclusive residential
section in Panama City,
where he has lived for
several years.
A police spokesman, who
was not authorized to
give his name, said that
a Colombian reportedly
was the mastermind
behind the kidnapping.
He would not say more
and Martinez declined to
comment on the
nationalities of those
involved.
The director of the
judicial police, Ayu
Prado, has said Padron's
relatives told him they
were contacted by his
captors who indicated
Padron is alive.
Padron is a director of
the Cuban American
National Foundation, a
politically influential
organization based in
Florida that lobbies for
U.S. pressure on the
Cuban government of
Fidel and Raul Castro.
"We are aware of his
abduction and wish that
the matter would be
resolved as quickly as
possible," said
foundation spokeswoman
Sandy Acosta Cox. |
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