Hooded and armed men Monday kidnapped Carlos Roca, news chief of the Televisa de Zulia television channel in the northeastern Venezuelan state of Zulia, said authorities in Maracaibo, the state capital.

'They forced him' into a vehicle that was later found abandoned, Odalis Caldera, said Zulia's public safety secretary.

The kidnapping took place at the entrance to the TV studios, she told Globovision television.

Televisa director Calixto Roca, the father of Carlos, asked the kidnappers to make their demands known as soon as possible to the family and security agencies.

Zulia law enforcement agencies said that as yet 'it has not been determined' whether the group acted for political motives or for purely criminal reasons, adding that state and federal police were doing everything possible to find and rescue Roca.

The abduction took place following the murder of the editor of the Caracas daily 2001, Israel Marquez, gunned down March 2 by carjackers.