Famed cartoonist Jose Trinidad Camacho went public this week revealing how he escaped an attempted kidnapping while driving the Guadalajara-Chapala highway late one night en route to his lakeside home.
The artist who signs his work under the moniker Trino is the author of well-known newspaper comic strips that often poke fun at modern-day social issues – ironically including the series entitled Fabulas de Policias y Ladrones (Fables of Cops and Robbers).
Describing details of the June 11 incident in several media interviews, Camacho explained that he was traveling the outskirts of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos when a pair of armed men in another vehicle forced him to stop in the road. Thinking he was being waylaid for a carjacking he readily surrendered the automobile, but the highwaymen shouted “It’s you we’re after!” as they went for the grab, pistol whipping him in the face and kicking him to the ground.
Camacho said he went limp, pretending to faint as the men started to drag him towards their getaway car. Just then another vehicle came speeding along, flashing high beams and honking as it passed. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, the cartoonist managed to free himself from his captors, dashing off into the roadside brush, Forest Gump style, he said.
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