A Mexican crime reporter who mysteriously vanished last week along with her two-year-old son called into a local radio program on Friday to report that the two were well but that she was in fear for their safety.

“My son and I are well, but for our own security I cannot say where I am,” Hypathia Stephanía Rodríguez Cardoso told Radio Formula in a “trembling voice”, EFE news agency reported. She also declined to give any details about her June 8 disappearance, the circumstances of which have not been made public.

Cardoso’s Twitter feed over the weekend appeared to give conflicting information about her situation. Yesterday, Cardoso tweeted that “help had arrived” and that she and her son would be sleeping that night in a “safe place”. Hours later, however, she posted that “this is not over” and that she hoped “it was all a bad dream”.

Speaking with Radio Formula on Friday, Cardoso said that she had not received any assistance from Mexican authorities, emphasising: “The only thing that we are asking for is the help of federal authorities to guarantee our safety, the protection of the Mexican state for me and my son.”

Announcing the news shortly thereafter on his Twitter feed, Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa promised that Cardoso “will have the protection of the [Attorney General’s office].

Cardoso told the station that she had decided to phone in because of widespread concern about her well-being, adding that she had not contacted her family due to safety reasons.

International Press Institute (IPI) Deputy Director Anthony Mills said: “We are greatly relieved to hear that Stephanía Cardoso is alive and apparently in a secure location. However, our concern for her safety and that of her son has not abated. The federal government must clarify the circumstances behind Stephanía’s disappearance, and heed her call for protection.”