New, more violent types of kidnappings are sparking a wave of protest and anger in Latin America, as kidnappers become less selective and attack a much wider swath of society. The fear of such abductions sparked a week of protests this month by upper-middle-class housewives in Mexico, while a fatal kidnapping in Argentina led tens of thousands to demonstrate in the streets of Buenos Aires in April. A similar mass rally has been called for Sunday, June 27, in Mexico City. Kroll Inc., a risk consulting company, estimates Mexico has the second-highest number of kidnappings behind Colombia, where many abductions are political, not criminal, in nature. The company estimates that in 2003, there were 4,000 kidnappings in Colombia, 3,000 in Mexico, and 2,000 in Argentina. Mexican officials claim kidnappings have been declining, however. Estimates based on federal and state crime statistics indicate kidnappings peaked in 1997, with 1,047 people held against their will, but even government officials concede that the majority of kidnappings are never reported to police. Even if kidnappings have decreased, as federal officials claim, the perpetrators have become less selective in choosing their victims and more clumsy and brutal in carrying them out. As police crack down on professional kidnapping gangs that have long targeted Latin America's tiny, wealthy elite, lower-level criminals have begun targeting victims like housewife Yolanda Torres, whose nephew Joshua Sierra was abducted on Aug. 12 from Torres' apartment on Mexico City's gritty east side. The new kidnapping victims might not be rich, but they have little security unlike the wealthy, who travel with bodyguards and bulletproof cars. Families are forced to scrape together ransoms, and sometimes the victims are killed even after the money has been paid. Torres' family paid the 102,000-peso (US10,000) ransom for Joshua's release, but never saw the toddler again. "We just want them to return Joshua," she said. "We have hopes that he is still alive."

The attackers strangled to death Joshua's 15-year-old cousin during the toddler's abduction, and apparently had little idea of what the family could pay. "The demonic thing about opportunistic kidnapping is that anyone could be a victim," said Frank Holder, former head of Latin American operations for Kroll Inc. "Traditional" kidnappings in Latin America the kind depicted in the new movie "Man on Fire," starring Denzel Washington are sophisticated operations in which kidnappers may study wealthy targets for months. Such gangs usually have experience, a negotiating plan, and some exit strategy. But as gritty and chilling as the Hollywood movie is, Latin America's reality is in some ways worse: Former armed robbers, drug dealers or cheap gunmen who kidnap someone based on the way they dress, the car they drive, or the quality of their jewelry. "Once they get you, they tend to be more violent, because they don't really have any coherent idea of how much money you have, or where you keep it," said Holder. "They may decide to torture you to get that information. "They may decide to kill you because they tend to slip up more and worry that you could identify them."

Originally, "express" kidnappings involved a victim abducted in a car or taxi, driven around for a few hours, beaten and threatened with death so the attackers could get a PIN number and make withdrawals with the victim's automatic banking card. Many police departments still classify those cases as armed robbery, not kidnapping. But those kidnappings have evolved, and can now last for days, weeks or months. "Kidnappers have become more ruthless," said Genaro Gongora Pimentel, a Supreme Court justice who claims to have identified 11 versions of the crime, some of which appear more akin to extortion. Inmates at a Mexico City prison, for example, were caught running a so-called "virtual kidnapping" ring. After gathering information on a "victim," they waited until the person was temporarily out of reach, then called their families to claim they had been kidnapped. There are "psychological" kidnappings, like a man who was dropped off at the Mexico City airport by his wife. As he waited for her to park their car, three men approached, described the wife perfectly, and said they were holding her and would harm her unless he gave them money. He did, only to find the woman had never been abducted. There have been "self kidnappings," or young people who convince acquaintances to tell the alleged "victim's" parents they have been kidnapped to try to wring some money out of them. There even appear to be whole towns devoted to the cottage industry. In early June, federal police found four safehouses and arrested a dozen men in the tiny village of Parres, on the southern outskirts of Mexico City. The same village was home to another kidnap ring three years earlier. "My children can't leave the house, play in the yard or walk a block down the street," said Marķa Fernanda, an uppermiddle-class housewife picketing an upscale Mexico City shopping mall where a woman had recently been kidnapped. Marķa Fernanda's husband had once been kidnapped by rogue police, she claimed and she would not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

Source: El Universal