Posted on 04/11/2007 10:09:01 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
MEXICO CITY — A team of federal officers helped reduce ransom payoffs to only about 5 percent of the nearly $104 million demanded by kidnappers in the cases they worked on last year, a top law enforcement official here said.
Specially trained agents help mediate between victims' families and kidnappers who have unrealistic ideas about how much the families are able to pay, said Facundo Rosas, head of the intelligence division of Mexico's federal police force.
"It is not just taking on the kidnappers head on, it is about assisting families in a crisis," he said in a rare interview to discuss the results of a government analysis of kidnapping trends. "Why? To avoid economic damage, physical damage to the victim and psychological damage to the victim as well as the family."
Mexico is wrestling with a reputation as the kidnapping capital of Latin America, and the crime is so common that people can call the federal teams on a toll-free number.
They are dispatched to set up command posts in private homes, where they do everything from coaching families on ransom negotiations to conducting rescue operations, Rosas said.
From 2001 to present, federal agents rescued 879 people and arrested 657 kidnappers, Rosas said.
Fewer than 2 percent of the victims — in cases managed by federal agents — end up being murdered, said Rosas, who declined to give specific numbers of those killed.
It is widely believed that many kidnapping victims and their families do not contact authorities out of fear they could be corrupt or make matters worse. It is not uncommon for people to panic, attempting to sell their homes and belongings or seeking loans and donations from friends and relatives to meet ransom demands.
Some citizen anti-crime groups give Rosas and federal police high marks for reducing ransoms but said far more needs to be done, such as combating the roots of crime and overhauling the justice system.
"What they need to dedicate themselves to more is stopping people from being kidnappers to begin with," said María Elena Morera, president of Mexico United Against Crime.
Morera repeatedly speaks out on the need for better public education and more employment opportunities for the nation's poor.
She experienced the wrath of kidnappers firsthand in 2001, when her husband was abducted and tortured by a criminal gang. He ultimately was rescued by agents of the federal anti-kidnapping squad.
The men who took and held her husband, including a surgeon who amputated four of his fingers to pressure a ransom payment, have been in prison for six years but have yet to be sentenced.
The federal police agency, known as AFI, is not perfect but is gaining public respect, said Ricardo Ainslie, a University of Texas at Austin psychology professor who grew up in Mexico City and recently made a documentary film on kidnapping.
"The people who are very pissed off about the security (situation) really sing the praises of the AFI," he said. "While (AFI officers) are not absolutely clean, they are such an improvement over anything that Mexico had in the past."
They are Mexico's rough equivalent to FBI agents, in that they are college graduates, are subjected to a battery of tests before being hired, and are paid better than most Mexican law enforcement officers.
Ainslie's documentary, "Ya Basta," (Enough Already) includes chilling interviews with kidnappers and people who have been kidnapped.
Victims tell of being blindfolded, beaten and humiliated.
"The first thing you do is cry and beg for your life," said a Mexico City kidnapping victim interviewed for the film.
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dschiller@express-news.net
Are the Mexican federal agents reducing their cut of such ransoms?
Secuestradores ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Maybe John Creasy had an impact on it.
Like that's saying much. Are folks real sure AFI aren't part of the schemes?
“Are the Mexican federal agents reducing their cut of such ransoms?”
No, merely cutting their rates on the official federale kidnappings. Freelance kidnappings are still market driven.
I wonder what their 'agent' cut was?
I dated the daughter of a man with vast holdings in Mexico amnog them a brandy whose name is familiar to many. When she was in her 30s, she was kidnapped.
The Judicial police found the location, rescued her, and the kidnappers were all killed, “resisting arrest.”
This was in the 70s. It’s gotten a lot worse since then in terms of numbers kidnapped. Most wealthy people have armed guards now.
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