Venezuelan journalist free after week-long kidnapping

A Venezuelan broadcast journalist who was kidnapped a week ago was found safe on April 14, the Buenos Aires Herald reported.

Nairobi Pinto, an editor for television news channel Globovisión, was abducted April 6 by armed men, according to local newspaper Venezuela Al Dia.

Globovisión said that its executives had assisted Pinto’s family in contacting security forces, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune. Her father, Luis Pinto, is also a journalist. Globovisión also posted a message for the kidnappers on its website, urging them to free her, the newspaper reported.

News of Pinto’s release was announced on Twitter. Details of her captivity and return to safety are not yet available, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.

Globovisión was among the last of Venezuelan media outlets traditionally critical of the leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro, according to the Associated Press. It was recently bought by a private party reportedly more sympathetic to the Maduro administration.

Kidnappings are common in Venezuela. In Caracas alone, there were 1,150 reported kidnappings in 2011, NPR reported. The city now ranks third on the list of most violent cities in the world published by Mexico’s Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, according to the Huffington Post.