MEXICO CITY — Nine workers from two prominent Mexican polling firms were missing Tuesday in the state of Michoacan, which holds elections later this year.
Six pollsters from the Consulta Mitofsky firm vanished over the weekend while surveying residents in Apatzingan, a town in a rural area that has seen bloody clashes between Mexican security forces and a drug-trafficking gang. On Tuesday, a separate firm, Parametria, reported that three of its field workers disappeared in the same region.
Parametria’s director, Francisco Abundis, said the workers were part of a 25-member team hired by the Democratic Revolution Party to prepare a companion survey to the one being done by Mitofsky on potential mayoral candidates.
Michoacan authorities said police were out in force searching for the workers. Alejandro Poire, a spokesman for President Felipe Calderon, said the disappearances showed the need to speed efforts to curb kidnapping and other crimes.
