Numerous reports from various sources
published in 2004 and 2005 have noted that kidnapping for extortion
was prevalent across the country, especially in major urban areas
such as Mexico City (Canada 14 Oct. 2005; US 26 July 2005;
IHT 22 July 2005; EFE 10 June 2004). However, while some
sources have reported that kidnapping has increased significantly
in recent years (ibid.; The Economist 17 June 2004), the
government of Mexico counters this data, stating that this type of
crime has stabilized and even declined slightly (ibid.; El
Universal 22 Jan. 2004).
According to the international
risk-consulting firm Kroll Inc., there were an estimated 3,000
nationwide kidnappings in 2003, placing Mexico second in the world
to Colombia for the number of yearly kidnappings (Mexidata 14 June
2004; EFE 10 June 2004; The Economist 17 June 2004). In
2004, the anti-crime non-governmental organization Citizen's
Council for Public Security (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad
Publica, CCSP) reported that 4,000 persons were kidnapped between
1997 and 2003, and that most of these crimes "took place in Mexico
City [Federal District] and in the states of Mexico, Guerrero and
Michoacan...." (EFE 10 June 2004). The Latinamerica Press
reported in June 2004 that kidnapping had also become increasingly
prevalent in the states of Tamaulipas, Oaxaca, and Morelos (30 June
2004).
In August 2005, the CCSP claimed that
Mexico had overtaken Colombia as the world leader in reported
kidnappings (El Universal 4 Aug. 2005). While the CCSP
reportedly counted 194 kidnappings from January to June 2005 -
which was more than the 172 kidnappings recorded in Colombia - the
office of the Federal Attorney General (Procuraduria General de la
Republica, PGR) claimed to have received only 87 reports of
kidnapping (ibid.).
According to the PGR, although there were
2,318 kidnappings reported nationwide from 2000 to March 2004, the
trend for each year was relatively stable: In 2000 there were 531
kidnappings; in 2001, 568; in 2002, 535; in 2003, 531; and from
January to March 2004 there were 153 (FBIS 2 July 2004).
Nevertheless, information about the prevalence of kidnappings in
Mexico continues to be a source of debate because critics maintain
that many kidnappings go unreported for reasons such as fear of
angering kidnappers (San Diego Union-Tribune 21 May 2005;
Latinamerica Press 30 June 2004), police ineptitude in
handling kidnapping situations (IHT 22 July 2005; El
Universal 4 Aug. 2005), and police collusion with kidnappers
(The Economist 17 June 2004; Latinamerica Press
30 June 2004; The Christian Science Monitor 18 Oct.
2004).
Police complicity
Police involvement in kidnappings has been
mentioned in numerous media articles (ibid.; Frontera NorteSur 28
June 2005; FBIS 6 Sept. 2005; The Christian Science
Monitor 18 Oct. 2004; Latin American Weekly Report 22
June 2004, 10). For example, the PGR noted that "[o]f the 292
suspected kidnappers arrested [between 2001 and June 2004] 13 (4.5
per cent) were active-duty police officers, most of them members of
the now-defunct Policia Judicial Federal" (ibid.). In June 2005,
Frontera NorteSur, an online news service covering United
States-Mexico border issues (n.d.), reported that Nuevo Laredo
municipal police had allegedly participated in the abductions of at
least 43 persons (Frontera NorteSur 28 June 2005). Victims rescued
by federal law enforcement and military personnel reportedly stated
that they were initially abducted by local police and then turned
over to "other men wielding guns" (ibid.). In September 2005,
Federal District police personnel arrested three federal law
enforcement officers for several suspected crimes, including
kidnapping (FBIS 6 Sept. 2005).
Types of kidnapping
Various sources of 2005 have also outlined
different types of kidnapping, including long-term kidnapping
(Canada 14 Oct. 2005), express kidnapping (IHT 22 July
2005; US 26 July 2005; San Diego Union-Tribune 21 May
2005), and virtual kidnapping (ibid.). In long-term kidnapping,
captors abduct their victim and hold him or her indefinitely until
they obtain a large ransom (IHT 22 July 2005). A
much-publicized example of a long-term kidnapping was the July 2005
abduction of a well-known soccer coach in Mexico City, in which the
payoff was reported to be US$500,000 (ibid.). However, in September
2005, agents from the Federal Agency of Investigation (Agencia
Federal de Investigacion, AFI) raided the kidnappers' hideout and
rescued the coach without incident (Reuters 22 Sept. 2005). Please
see state protection section for more information about the
AFI.
Express kidnapping involves short-term
abductions, from a few hours to a few days, to obtain cash quickly,
usually from Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) or by holding an
individual until a modest ransom is paid for their release (EFE 19
Apr. 2005; US 26 July 2005; Mexidata 14 June 2004; Latinamerica
Press 30 June 2004). According to a May 2005 news article
about kidnapping in Tijuana, express kidnapping involves a "smaller
amount of money - such as $5,000 to $30,000," and victims are
usually freed after a few days (San Diego Union-Tribune 21
May 2005).
With regard to "virtual" kidnapping, the
San Diego Union-Tribune reported that this crime is
similar to extortion in that prospective abductors demand that
people pay money to ensure that they will not be kidnapped (21 May
2005). The news article goes on to report that 10 members of
Tijuana's business community reported this type of kidnapping
threat in 2003 (San Diego Union-Tribune 21 May 2005).
The electronically attached September 2004
article from the London-based The Independent provides a
summary of the kidnapping problem in Mexico City, including three
testimonials about different types of kidnapping such as express
kidnapping.
Overall, news sources reported that while
kidnappers have traditionally targeted wealthy individuals,
criminals are increasingly targeting middle-class and working-class
persons as well (Mexidata 14 June 2004; The Economist 17
June 2004; The Christian Science Monitor 18 Oct. 2004;
The Independent 5 Sept. 2004).
State protection efforts
According to a June 2004 Latin American
Weekly Report article, kidnapping is "not per se a
federal crime, but falls within the purview of the state
governments and that of the federal district" (22 June 2004).
Nevertheless, some states have made efforts to strengthen
legislation against kidnapping; for example, the state of Veracruz
passed a law in January 2004 that increased the maximum
incarceration period for convicted kidnappers to 50 years
(Latin American Weekly Report 3 Feb. 2004). In addition,
the Federal District and the states of Tlaxcala, Puebla, Hidalgo,
Morelos, Mexico, and Veracruz have decided to place those convicted
of kidnapping into maximum security prisons (EFE 23 June 2004).
However, in June 2004, then federal
security minister Alejandro Gertz recognized the need to enact a
federal law against kidnapping (Latin American Weekly
Report 22 June 2004). Subsequently, in April 2005, the lower
house of the Congress approved federal penal code amendments to
classify express kidnapping as a crime (EFE 19 Apr. 2005). In June
2005, these amendments came into force, outlawing express
kidnapping as a "serious crime" punishable with between 15 to 40
years in prison (BBC Mundo 16 June 2005). Information on the
effectiveness of this new law could not be found among the sources
consulted by the Research Directorate.
Even though kidnappings fall under state
jurisdiction, in June 2004 President Fox stated that federal
authorities would work with state and municipal governments "to
coordinate anti-kidnapping efforts" (Mexidata 14 June 2004; EFE 10
June 2004). Consequently, much of the law enforcement effort to
combat kidnapping has involved primarily federal police agencies
such as the AFI (Reuters 22 Sept. 2005; El Universal 22
Jan. 2004; Latin American Weekly Report 22 June 2004;
Business Mexico Sept. 2004). In September 2004, Mexico
City-based news magazine Business Mexico reported that the
AFI's reputation in handling crime situations such as kidnapping
was improving among those associated with the business community in
Mexico. Between the time it was created in December 2001, and June
2004, the AFI reportedly disbanded 48 kidnap gangs, arrested 305
suspected kidnappers and solved 419 cases of kidnapping (Latin
American Weekly Report 22 June 2004). In addition, the AFI
assisted state authorities with 91 kidnapping cases (ibid.).
Moreover, by August 2005, federal authorities announced that for
the year-to-date they had taken into custody 72 suspected
kidnappers and had "fully dismantled" 11 kidnapping gangs (El
Universal 4 Aug. 2005).
For more information about the AFI, please
refer to the Research Directorate's May 2004 Issue Paper
Mexico: Police.
While there has been success in dismantling
major kidnapping rings, the result has apparently been a
proliferation of smaller gangs that are "more ruthless" when the
victim's family is unable to pay the ransom demand
(Latinamerica Press 30 June 2004; The Economist
17 June 2004). These so-called "amateurish outfits" have been known
to be extremely violent towards their captives, reportedly raping
female victims and committing bodily harm against abducted males
(ibid.).
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list
of additional sources consulted in researching this Information
Request.
References
BBC Mundo. 16 June 2005. "Tipifican
secuestro express en Mexico." http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_4102000/4102044.stm
[Accessed 14 Oct. 2005]
Business Mexico [Mexico City].
September 2004. Vol. 14, Issue 9. Kelly Garrett. "Spotlight on
Security: Cooperation Between Private and Public Sectors Can Make
Everyone Safer." (Factiva)
Canada. 14 October 2005. Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Foreign Affairs Canada.
"Mexico." Travel Report. http://www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/reportPF-en.asp?country=184000
[Accessed 14 Oct. 2005]
The Christian Science Monitor
[Boston]. 18 October 2004. Danna Harman. "In Mexico, Kidnapping Is
No Longer Just a Problem for the Rich." http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1018/p01s03-woam.htm
[Accessed 14 Oct. 2005]
The Economist [London]. 17 June
2004. "Fear of Captivity." http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_Id=2766416
[Accessed 21 Jan. 2005]
EFE. 19 April 2005. "Mexican Lawmakers
Classify 'Express Kidnapping' as a Crime." (Dialog)
____. 23 June 2004. "Epidemic
Kidnappings Force Mexican Authorities to Meet." (Dialog)
____. 10 June 2004. Julian Rodriguez.
"Alarmed Mexicans Demand Gov't Action to Stem Kidnappings."
(Dialog)
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS). 6 September 2005. "Highlights: Mexico Crime and Narcotics
Issues 3-6 Sep 05." (WNC/Dialog)
____. 2 July 2004. "Highlights: Mexico
Crime, Narcotics Issues 2 Jun 04 - PHOTOS." (WNC/Dialog)
Frontera NorteSur [Las Cruces, New
Mexico]. 28 June 2005. "Mexican Police Blamed for Mass
Kidnappings." (Mexidata Website) http://www.mexidata.info/id528.html
[Accessed 11 Oct. 2005]
____. N.d. "Frontera NorteSur
Information." http://frontera.nmsu.edu/ [Accessed
17 Oct. 2005]
The Independent [London]. 5
September 2004. "Mexico City: The New Kidnap Capital of the World."
(Google Cache - Seguridad y Democracia Website) http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:aaWIBneA3NQJ:www.seguridadydemocracia.org/monitordeseguridad/internacional/AMERICA/mexico/septiembre/mexico_5SeptiembreIndependt_Mexico.htm+%22Mexico+City:+The+New+Kidnap+Capital+of+the+World%22&hl=en
[Accessed 19 Oct. 2005]
International Herald Tribune
(IHT). 22 July 2005. James C. McKinley Jr. "Anger in Mexico as
Famous Coach is Kidnapped." http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/07/21/news/mexico.php
[Accessed 11 Oct. 2005]
Latin American Weekly Report
[London]. 29 June 2004. "Fox Bill Flops as Thousands March Against
Kidnapping." (WR-04-25)
____. 22 June 2004. "Anticrime 'Crusade'
and Unheeded Facts." (WR-04-24)
____. 3 February 2004. "State Law Tries
to Block 'Inhibit' Ransom Payments." (WR-04-05)
Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 30
June 2004. Vol. 36, No. 13. "Mexico: Fighting Back Federal, State
Governments Launch Campaign Against Kidnappings." http://www.latinamericapress.org/main.asp
[Accessed 30 June 2004]
Mexidata [San Diego]. 14 June 2004.
Barnard R. Thompson. "Kidnappings Are out of Control in Mexico." http://www.mexidata.info/id217.html
[Accessed 14 Oct. 2005]
Reuters. 22 September 2005. Alistair
Bell. "Mexico Police Score Rare Win in Soccer Coach Rescue." http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22585727.htm
[Accessed 11 Oct. 2005]
San Diego Union-Tribune. 21 May
2005. Anna Cearley. "Kidnap Fears Causing Some to Leave Tijuana."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050521-9999-1n21kidnap.html
[Accessed 11 Oct. 2005]
United States. 26 July 2005. Department
of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs. "Mexico." Consular
Information Sheet. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html?css=print
[Accessed 14 Oct. 2005]
El Universal [Mexico City]. 4
August 2005. "Group: Mexico Leads World in Abductions." http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/version_imprimir?id_nota=11437&tabla=miami_h
[Accessed 4 Oct. 2005]
____. 22 January 2004. "PGR: Kidnap
Rates Falling." http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/version_imprimir?id_nota=2884&tabla=miami_h
[Accessed 5 May 2004]
Additional Sources Consulted
Internet sites, including:
Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, World
News Connection.
Attachment
The Independent [London]. 5
September 2004. "Mexico City: The New Kidnap Capital of the World."
(Google Cache - Seguridad y Democracia Website) http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:aaWIBneA3NQJ:www.seguridadydemocracia.org/monitordeseguridad/internacional/AMERICA/mexico/septiembre/mexico_5SeptiembreIndependt_Mexico.htm+%22Mexico+City:+The+New+Kidnap+Capital+of+the+World%22&hl=en
[Accessed 19 Oct. 2005] Electronic Attachment
The Independent [London]. 5
September 2004. "Mexico City: The New Kidnap Capital of the World."
(Google Cache - Seguridad y Democracia Website) http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:aaWIBneA3NQJ:www.seguridadydemocracia.org/monitordeseguridad/internacional/AMERICA/mexico/septiembre/mexico_5SeptiembreIndependt_Mexico.htm+%22Mexico+City:+The+New+Kidnap+Capital+of+the+World%22&hl=en
[Accessed 19 Oct. 2005]
Mexico City: The New Kidnap Capital of the World
Leaning back in a chair in his Mexico City office, systems analyst
Roberto Garcia winces as he remembers the phone calls. The commands
were simple. "Pick up the receiver by the second ring or we will
beat your nephew until he bleeds. Fail to make the ransom demand
and we will send him back to you in pieces."
Scooped off the streets of the Mexican capital as he went out for a
hamburger near his home in the modest Iztapalapa neighbourhood, the
youngster was held bound and blindfolded for five weeks.
Threatened, abused and alone as his family scrabbled to pull
together 1m peso (around £50,000) ransom, the middle-class
Garcia family were thrown into a terrifying new world - but one
that is becoming ever-more familiar to Mexicans."We thought that we
wouldn't be vulnerable to kidnapping because we don't have the kind
of money they ask for," says the soft-spoken 64-year-old as he
recalls the ordeal. "Now the poor, the middle-income and the rich
are all being targeted. Kidnapping has become an industry."
In a recent report, international risk consultants Kroll Inc
estimated that some 3,000 people were victims of kidnapping in
Mexico last year - around 20 times the number actually reported to
the country's notoriously corrupt police force - placing the
fast-modernizing nation of 100 million people second only to
strife-torn Colombia in the global kidnapping league.
In June, the wave of abductions triggered the largest street
demonstrations seen for a decade in Mexico which in turn led to the
resignation of the country's public security minister. The kidnaps
also form the chilling backdrop to Man on Fire, a fast-paced
thriller by British director Tony Scott that premiere's across the
UK next month.
While abductions are rife throughout the country, Mexico's vast
capital bears the brunt. The largest city in Latin America with 20
million residents, smog-choked Mexico City is ringed by a dizzying
labyrinth of cinder-block slums and has an urban sprawl that covers
an area twice the size of Greater London - few taxi drivers claim
to know more than half of its streets. The city is also home to 18
well-organised kidnap gangs that have an ever-broader range of
carefully chosen victims.
Drawing on a range of conspirators including policemen, bank
clerks, domestic servants and security guards at residential blocks
across the capital, these gangs work up a detailed profile of their
victims that enables them to choose a window of opportunity for the
kidnap and set a realistic ransom. Whereas abductions were once
cyclical, analysts say the activity now forms a year-round "war
without quarter".
"It used to be that kidnappings would pick up just before holidays
such as Mother's Day, Christmas and Holy Week because the criminals
needed the money to party," says Max Morales, a Mexico City
security analyst who is widely regarded as one of the country's
foremost authorities on kidnapping. "But we started this year
freeing two people on 4 January and there is no longer any
respite."
The ransom market is thought to be worth in excess of $100m
(£56m) a year. This huge pot is now also luring a range of
opportunistic criminals from across Mexico City and beyond. The
emerging gangs are less business oriented and more emotional than
their predecessors and, as a result, more violent.
Since the beginning of 1996, Mexican kidnappers have shot, stabbed
and strangled over 160 of their hostages, with more than half of
the fatalities occurring during a surge of criminal activity in the
past three years. In one recent case that sickened crime-weary
Mexicans, two young brothers were shot dead and their bodies tossed
in a skip even after their parents paid a $600,000 (£335,000)
ransom.
Another case in July involved the kidnap and murder of Mexico's
1997 Woman of the Year, Carmen Gutierrez. A highly regarded
specialist in rehabilitative medicine, Gutierrez was snatched as
she left her smart apartment complex. Her abductors became jittery
during negotiations, strangled her and tossed her body in a sewage
canal on the city's outskirts. Then, noticing that she was still
alive, they held her head under the water until she stopped
breathing.
Most in Mexico find it difficult to conceive of anyone being
capable of such brutality. Some clues as to what types of people
the kidnappers might be came in a recent profile of six gang
leaders that was leaked by the AFI - Mexico's equivalent of the FBI
- to the newspaper Reforma. The profile showed them to be long-term
offenders with a history of crimes including assault, robbery,
extortion and murder, who had spent years in the brutal prison
system.
Rounded up in separate swoops during the first half of the year,
these mafia leaders had nicknames common in the Latin American
underworld, including El Alacran and El Duende - The Scorpion and
The Goblin - and liked to spend the freely flowing ransom money on
baubles including white-gold watches and fast motorbikes. They were
also armed with weapons including Uzi submachine guns, fancy
Beretta, Colt and Taurus pistols and AK-47 assault rifles - known
in gangland slang as the "cuerno de chivo" or "goat horn" because
of its distinctive curved ammunition clip.
As in Scott's film, the Santa Muerte death cult also figured large
in their stories. The scythe-wielding figurine of Our Lady of Death
is revered by gangsters, thieves and prostitutes in the capital's
crime-ridden Tepito neighbourhood who call on her for protection.
Spurned by the Catholic Church, the cult has spilled out of the
barrio and now counts policemen and politicians among its tattooed
and talisman-wearing devotees, and has chapters as far away as Los
Angeles.
The kidnappers do not work alone. Victims' testimonies routinely
include accounts of "arrests" by uniformed police officers who have
used their squad cars to pull over intended targets. Among those
charged for several recent abductions are current and former
employees of the various branches of the federal and municipal
forces. In June, a group of elite officers was detained after
abducting a businessman with the aid of false arrest warrants.
In a bid to cover their tracks and protect one another, corrupt,
high-ranking officers band together in a secret group called La
Hermandad - The Brotherhood. La Hermandad links the underworld
gangs of the city's shantytowns to the upper echelons of the
authorities, who profit from criminal endeavours ranging from drug
trafficking to extortion."What you have to understand," says
Morales, as we talk in his offices high above the thrumming traffic
of the capital's smart Colonia del Valle district, "is that police
corruption is not just a matter of taking bribes to turn a blind
eye but of policeman who are active kidnappers. What's worse is
that people charged with cracking the corruption continue to
tolerate it."
So real is the fear of high-level corruption in law-enforcement
circles that Mexico's attorney general, Raphael Macedo, recently
had microchips implanted beneath the skin of 160 top federal
prosecutors and investigators to ensure access to a highly
sensitive new crime database that went live last month was secure.
The devices, manufactured by the Florida-based VeriChip Corp, carry
unique identification codes to foil attempts by impostors trying to
gain access to the network.
While Mexico's law-enforcement community struggles to combat the
corruption that threatens it from within, wealthy Mexicans are
going to ever-greater lengths to protect themselves, turning to the
private security companies piling into a booming market now worth
hundreds of millions of pounds each year. It is estimated that up
to 1,000 firms are currently offering security services, ranging
from those supplying baton-toting guards to shopping malls, to a
dozen or so companies that offer top-of-the-range VIP protection
packages. The most comprehensive deals on offer include
risk-assessment services, employee screening and crisis management
- shorthand for kidnap negotiation in a worst-case scenario.
Also popular are armoured cars. The leading specialist in this
market, O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, pegs the number of companies
offering top-flight vehicle armour in the Mexican capital at 50,
almost double the number five years ago. Piling state-of-the-art
materials - including Kevlar, aramid fibres, blast- and bulletproof
steels, and 2.1mm-thick ballistic glass - into the bodies of luxury
European and American cars, is a $28m-a-year (£16m) industry
in Mexico.
But with the simplest armour starting at $20,000 (£11,000),
and the cost of providing armed guards for a family of four at
$50,000 (£28,000) a year, protection is out of the reach of
most Mexico City residents, four of whom are kidnapped on average
each day. A further 70 or so a day, meanwhile, are snatched off the
streets in what are known as "express" kidnappings, where criminals
(often lurking among the city's taxi cabs) force their victims to
withdraw money from their bank accounts before releasing them.In
late June, up to a million demonstrators dressed in white packed
the streets of the city to demand government action in the biggest
protest that the country had witnessed in more than a decade. The
march, which filled the city's eight-lane Reforma thoroughfare from
gutter to gutter, later claimed the scalp of Public Security
Minister Alejandro Gertz, who stepped down in the face of such
strong criticism.
"The rally's success didn't surprise me as crime is now one of
Mexicans' greatest worries, although it may have taken some
politicians by surprise," says march organiser Fernando Schutte
from the office of his family estate agency in the city's colonial
San Angel district. "Public security is the state's primary reason
for being, and if it isn't providing it, then you have to go out
and demand it. I don't want to hear speeches, I want to see
results," he adds.
While Mexico's law enforcement and justice system is choked by
corruption and a lack of resources that frustrates the best of
political intentions, even the most severely tested in the
crime-blighted capital share Schutte's steadfast conviction that
the police and criminal-justice system must be made to work.
Among them is accountant Eduardo Gallo, whose 25-year-old daughter,
Paola, was snatched four years ago by a kidnap gang and shot dead
despite the prompt payment of a ransom. Facing indifference from
prosecutors, Gallo singlehandedly tracked down Paola's killers in
an 11-month manhunt that took him right up to the US border.
Although there were moments when Gallo may have considered exacting
his own brand of justice, in the end he simply handed the
kidnappers over to the courts.
"It wasn't so much that I had the faith or confidence that the
system of justice would work, but the alternative was to kill
them," he says. "My parents brought me up with respect for the law,
for society and for people's lives, and these were the values that
I had passed on to my own children. I couldn't simply throw that
aside when faced with a problem."[...]EXPRESS KIDNAPPING: Maria
Jose Cuevas, graphic designer, 32Cuevas was pulling up outside her
home (where she agreed to be photographed here) in the capital's
fashionable La Condesa neighbourhood on a quiet Sunday evening in
late spring. As she parked her VW, she felt the presence of a man
nearby.
"I turned and saw that he had a pistol. He told me to get in the
back of the car, then two more men got in: one up front
accompanying the driver, and one in the back with me. All three
were about 20 years old and had guns.
"The situation was desperate. I had a pistol pressed into my ankle
and another stuck into my ribs. You are in your own space, your
car, but you don't have control over it or anything else. Outside,
you see life going on as if nothing was happening, and you can't
call for help.
"My father is one of the most famous painters in Mexico - Jose Luis
Cuevas - and at first I didn't know whether it was a kidnap that
would last several days and end in a ransom demand, or if it was a
so-called express kidnapping that would last just a couple of
hours. But when they asked who my family was, I started to calm
down a little as it looked like it was just random.
"They asked for my bank card, and they drove to three or four ATMs
to withdraw cash. By sheer luck I only had 10,000 pesos (around
£500). I told them to check the balance, and they believed I
didn't come from a rich family.
"After they got the money, they carried on driving around and I got
very anxious about where they were taking me. They hurl every kind
of cliché at you to frighten you. They tell you you are
going to sleep in a cellar - like a proper kidnap. They say they
are going to take you out on to the highway, implying that they are
going to kill or rape you.
"Inside I was dying of fright, but I was chatting to them and
outwardly very calm. I was telling them how the situation in Mexico
was very difficult, and that I didn't agree with robbery or
hold-ups but I understood why they did it. I was becoming their
accomplice."After about three hours, they decided to let me go.
They parked up in a dark street. When everyone else had got out of
the car, the driver reached out and squeezed my shoulder. He stayed
looking right into my eyes for a few seconds. It was a little
moment in which I felt like he was both trying to ask me to forgive
him and thanking me."
KIDNAPPED BY POLICE: Miguel Castillo, marketing director,
35Castillo was leaving the bakery he worked at in the capital's
Barranca del Muerto district at around 9.30pm on a spring evening
when he found the path to his Volkswagen GTI blocked by a federal
police squad car.
"The police forced me to get out of my car, saying that it was
stolen. Three or four officers then threw me face down into the
back of the car and put their feet on top of me. They drove off
with the radio turned on loud so that I couldn't figure out where I
was going. I still don't know which route they followed.
"They handed me over to some civilians who held me captive in a
safe house. I was stripped naked and placed in a completely dark
room with a cement floor. They tied my left hand to a concrete post
with wire, and left me there for five nights and six days."Their
mistreatment was systematic. They didn't feed me. They beat me
frequently, and they told me they were going to kill me. It was a
psychological game. When they came for me, they always shoved a
torch right in my face so that I couldn't identify them. You feel
complete impotence as your life depends entirely on your
kidnappers' attitude and moods.
"I had to identify my family and give them their details. It wasn't
until the fifth day that they finally got in touch with them. My
family was going frantic with worry as they had no idea where I
was. They paid a ransom [he declines to say how much] and I was put
back into the boot of my car and taken for a drive.
"They left me in the countryside in Morelos state - adjacent to
Mexico City. After the sound of voices had receded, I began to call
for help. A farmer heard me and helped me to climb out through the
back seats. I went to a nearby house and used the phone to call my
mother.
"It has left me with a lot of anger because of the situation they
put my family in. If I lost a family member or a friend in a
kidnapping, I would want to take revenge."
KIDNAPPED IN HIS OWN HOME: Jose Cohen, television producer, 34Cohen
was relaxing at home with his wife and three young children when he
got a call from work. A colleague needed a telephone number, so he
took the lift (which he returned to for the photo you see here)
down from his 10th-floor apartment in the capital's swanky Polanco
district to fetch his laptop from his car.
"When I pushed the elevator door open, a 9mm pistol was pointing in
my face. I was told to close my eyes and look down at the floor,
and I just remember seeing a bunch of feet walking into the
elevator, at least four of five people. They took me back up to my
apartment. It was a kidnap in my own home.
"They took us all into the bedroom where the shower was still on,
and they tied my wife and me up. They just said to us, 'Keep cool
and nothing is going to happen.' The kids were with us and the
little one was crying for his bottle, so that was a little
difficult."At first it was very frightening as they were very
threatening. They said things like 'You son of a bitch' and 'If you
open your eyes, I'll kill you.' But we were lucky because that
particular day I had gone to change a cheque as I had to make some
payments at the office the following day. I had around $3,000
(£2,000) in my pocket and I gave it to them immediately.
"We are not a Rolex family, so they took my wallet, my wife's
jewellery, some antique watches inherited from my grandfather and
my DVD player and our mobile phones. They were constantly talking
on mobile phones, and only later did we realise they had taken over
the whole building and were talking to accomplices in other
apartments."After a couple of hours, they left, telling us not to
do anything for 45 minutes. I put a chair against the elevator
door, which was silly, and turned off the shower. At the end of the
day they told me that if we took it easy and played along with
their game, they wouldn't hurt us, and that was the most important
thing for me, obviously, as I just wanted to protect my family.
"Only later when I checked the call log of my wife's mobile phone
did I discover that the kidnappers had used it to call one
particular number 17 times. I started to do my own investigation,
but then decided to drop it. If you live in a place where there is
no rule of law, then it's pretty damn scary to go ahead and do
something on your own."