A Venezuelan journalist was freed Monday, eight days after she was kidnapped by masked men in front of her house, according to Reuters.
Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres told a news conference that 3,000 people had been hunting for Nairobi Pinto, chief correspondent for the Globovision television station, and "the police pressure played an important role" in prompting the captors to free her, Reuters reported.
Three armed men in masks seized Pinto in front of her house in Caracas on April 6 and she was freed at a hospital in the town of Cua, about 60 miles south of the capital, according to Reuters.
Rodriguez Torres said officials have not wanted to speculate about a motive for the kidnapping, though he noted that Pinto is a university law student and member of a Christian group as well as being a journalist, according to Reuters.
While kidnapping for ransom is a widespread problem in Venezuela, Pinto's family said earlier they had received no messages from the abductors, Reuters reported. Pinto herself appeared briefly alongside the minister and said she could not identify her captors because her eyes were always covered.
"They treated me well. They never touched me, never mistreated me. I ate all three meals," Pinto said, adding that she said she could not give more details for reasons of security, according to Reuters.
The United Nations said last week that Venezuela had the world's second-highest murder rate, quoting 2012 figures of 53.7 homicides per 100,000 people, Reuters reported. President Nicolas Maduro's government said that figure fell to 39 last year, but a non-government watchdog says the real level was double that.
Crime has been a major complaint of anti-government protesters who have been taking to the streets since early February, leading to violence in which 41 people have been killed, according to Reuters.
The murder in January of a former Miss Venezuela and her ex-husband, in front of their five-year-old daughter, caused particular outrage in the nation of 29 million people, Reuters reported.
