Mexico Under Siege

FEAR OF KIDNAPPING GRIPS MEXICO

The Number Is Rising, and the Rich Are Not the Only Ones Targeted.
Criminals Sometimes Want As Little As $500.

MEXICO CITY -- Perhaps nothing reveals this country's kidnapping dread
better than one product now on offer from a Mexican company: a tiny
transmitter that is implanted under the skin to beam the person's
whereabouts to a satellite.

Employing more conventional safeguards, businessmen travel with
bodyguards, and children in tony neighborhoods attend classes behind
Ft. Knox-like security. The insurance industry has pondered whether to
offer kidnapping protection.

Although the country's drug violence may make headlines abroad,
Mexicans are far more preoccupied with its kidnapping problem, among
the world's worst. Its frequency and variety, including "express" and
"virtual" kidnappings, have made it a kind of national plague, and one
with unusual political resonance.

It has prompted calls to reinstate the death penalty for such cases
and marches nationwide Saturday that drew massive crowds. The growing
outcry spurred political leaders to hurriedly convene in the National
Palace late last month to approve a high-profile plan against
organized crime. A number of the provisions targeted abductions,
including a request for more federal prisons, with areas reserved for
kidnappers.

The abduction anxieties run across a surprisingly wide swath of
society. There have been cases in which working-class families were
ordered to pay as little as $500 to get a relative back.

A report by the daily Milenio newspaper said a review of federal
statistics showed that only 1 in 8 kidnapping victims was a business
executive. About half were in the middle class or below, the newspaper
reported.

"They call it an elitist crime because only the rich get kidnapped,
but that's not true. They'll kidnap you for $1,000 or $2,000," said
Alfredo Neme Martinez, who heads a national association of wholesale
merchants.

The kidnapping furor has gripped the country since the death early
last month of 14-year-old Fernando Marti. The youth was found dead in
Mexico City after his wealthy family, founders of a chain of sporting
goods stores, reportedly paid kidnappers millions of dollars for his
release.

The case has provoked public outrage by seeming to crystallize the
nation's broader problems of crime and corruption, and the failure of
successive governments to deal with them. Worse, the abduction may
have involved police, stoking a long-held suspicion here that law
enforcement officers are more a problem than a cure.

Then, in another high-profile case, the former head of Mexico's sports
commission and his wife went public last week with news that their
teenage daughter was kidnapped nearly a year ago and still missing,
after the captors abruptly dropped contact.

"Just return my daughter to me and you will have your reward," the
mother, Silvia Escalera, pleaded before television cameras.

The victim, Silvia Vargas Escalera, was 18 when she disappeared last
September. The family printed an 800 number and a picture of the girl,
smiling and wearing a Coke T-shirt, on a five-story banner and hung it
on a building near the busy Paseo de la Reforma, the capital's central
boulevard.

For all the concern over kidnapping, it is unclear how often it
occurs. According to official statistics, about 65 people are
kidnapped each month, or about two a day. That figure is up 9.1% from
last year.

But the actual kidnapping tally is probably far higher: Many families
avoid going to the police because they don't trust them. A crime
institute said recently that there were probably more than 500
kidnappings a month.

They come in a wide variety. There are traditional abductions for
ransom. "Express" kidnappings may last a couple of hours. They are
often glorified muggings, with the victim ordered to withdraw money
from an ATM or buy goods for the captors to win release.

There are even "virtual" kidnappings, in which no one is taken. A
caller pretends to have a captive in hopes of getting the person's
loved ones to make a hasty payoff before they try to confirm the claim.

Authorities contend that the rise in kidnappings is a sign that their
crackdown on drug traffickers is working. According to this view,
which is shared by a number of analysts, the government campaign has
made it more difficult to smuggle drugs into the United States,
prompting trafficking gangs in places such as Tijuana to find other
sources of income, such as kidnapping.

The result, officials say, is that kidnapping has become increasingly
competitive.

Abductions appear to be increasingly fatal for captives. At least 60
have been killed since President Felipe Calderon took office in
December 2006, said Laura Elena Herrejon, who heads an anti-crime
group in Mexico City.

Although drug violence in Mexico has been staggering, with more than
2,600 people reported killed this year, many residents brush it off as
largely a battle among rival gangs. Kidnapping, though, hits families
at a personal level and echoes at a societal one.

The Garcia family's turn came in December, when Gilberto Garcia was
abducted

Garcia, 75, who owns a small transport business, was returning with
his wife from evening church services in western Guerrero state when
men dressed in police uniforms and toting rifles stopped them on a
country road.

The men beat and blindfolded the couple, then drove off into the
darkness with the husband. They took Garcia to a rural house and
tethered him by a chain around his neck. "Like a dog," he recalled
during an interview in the capital.

Two hours later, the kidnappers called his daughter, Norma, and issued
their ransom demand: 1.5 million pesos (about $150,000).

In subsequent calls, she begged the captors to release her father,
saying he was diabetic. She told them that they must have made a
mistake; the family wasn't rich and had no access to that kind of money.

The captors offered only threats in return: "You know how your father
will come back."

The Garcias then did something rare in Mexican kidnapping cases: They
called the police. Two federal agents came to their home to offer tips
on dealing with the kidnappers. One piece of advice was to ignore the
death threats; the kidnappers would need the elder Garcia alive to get
their money.

Norma Garcia, 40, managed to convince the kidnappers that their price
was out of reach. They ultimately lowered the ransom to a tenth of the
original demand, or about $15,000.

She scraped together money from a credit cooperative and packed the
cash and what jewelry she owned into a suitcase. A brother-in-law
hiked into a remote ravine to drop off the bundle, as directed by the
kidnappers.

The abductors called half an hour later with instructions on where to
find Garcia: at the side of a highway. He was disheveled and his
shirt front was dark with blood. He had survived on water during his
three days of captivity.

Federal police arrested four suspects in connection with the case. The
men are in custody but have not been tried.

Garcia says he supports stiffer punishments for kidnappers, including
the death penalty.

"If there's no iron hand, this will never end," Garcia said. "If I had
known that day they were coming after me, I would have run over them.
Every man for himself."