Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!
Codebreaker

Anonymous doesn’t go through with threat

John Moe Nov 7, 2011

Last week we told you about the standoff between members of Anonymous and the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas. The cartel had kidnapped an Anonymous member, Anonymous then said it had procured thousands of names of Zetas members and accomplices and planned to release them online even if doing so meant those people or Anonymous members themselves would be killed. It was all supposed to happen on Saturday but it didn’t.

The Register thinks the whole story is a little fishy:

A statement from Anonymous Iberoamerica states that the still unnamed member of the collective was freed, adding that “although bruised, we can say he is safe and well”. Los Zetas are as well-known for kidnap and murder as they are for drug running in their native Mexico. They kidnap victims for money and those they can’t turn a swift profit on are usually killed.

The idea that the narcotraficantes may have responded to the threat of being outed by Anonymous by releasing a kidnap victim strains credulity to breaking point. The lack of details on when the supposed kidnap victim might have been taken makes the whole story even less plausible. The kidnapping supposedly happened during a leafleting campaign in the Mexican state of Veracruz but, as The Guardian reports, the last such protest occurred months ago and there’s no evidence of any police reports of an abduction.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.