Posted on 11/10/2006 12:14:54 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
All of us who've spent most of our lives close to the border have known Mexico to be a vibrant, exotic and fun place to visit or do business. However, increasingly travel to Mexico means putting your life in danger.
Violence is escalating, with sharp increases in murders and kidnappings of Mexican and American citizens alike.
Mexico: A romantic, festive country is today becoming known as one of the most dangerous places in the world.
"One of them took me from behind, and grabbed me with a knife, and they pulled me in," Jerry Ortega said.
Ortega, an American businessman, stopped for gas outside of Monterrey. He was heading for San Antonio when he was kidnapped.
"There was a point when I was just crying, begging for my life," he said.
Ortega was on(e) of an estimated 5,000 people kidnapped in Mexico this past year.
"Kidnappings have increased dramatically in Mexico, and it's not just related to drug cartels and all that other stuff," said Jack Cloonan, president of Clayton Consultants.
Cloonan, a former FBI agent, heads the largest security firm specializing in "K and R" — kidnapping and ransom insurance — and business is booming in Mexico.
"I can't tell you why it's happening more and more. It just is," Cloonan said.
Mexico today is on the verge of becoming the kidnapping capitol of the world, surpassing Colombia. And it's not just the super rich who are at risk.
"Any family that is middle class or above can find themselves the targets," Cloonan said.
Alex Diaz went to college in San Antonio. Now he runs two small pharmacies in Guadalajara. He is not a wealthy man, but he and his family live in fear.
"Sometimes you don't even want to go out," Diaz said.
While few of us in the United States can even imagine it, everyone in the Diaz family knows someone who's been kidnapped. Alex Diaz personally knows three.
"I know of one that was a month kidnapped. All of these three people never reported it to the authorities," Diaz said.
The kidnappings weren't reported because of fear of retaliation, and Mexico's police are notoriously corrupt, sometimes involved in the kidnappings themselves.
Criminals know they are safely beyond the law, and now there's a frightening new trend. Guadalajara is one of the hot spots for a new wave of crime — express kidnappings.
People walking along the street are grabbed at random and driven around, then forced to empty their bank accounts at ATMs. Security experts said that happens 100 times every day in Mexico.
And it's getting worse. The FBI reports that kidnappings and ransom demands in Mexico are on the rise. At least 27 Americans have been abducted this year; 22 are still missing. And the kidnappings are becoming more violent.
"It's more troubling, because there's been more deaths in kidnappings than before," Diaz said.
Ortega is convinced he narrowly escaped certain death. With a machete to his throat, his kidnappers savagely beat him while driving up a remote mountain road.
"We must have been doing 30 miles, 40 mph," he said.
Ortega made the difficult decision to jump out of the moving car. He pushed himself and a kidnapper out the door, and landed on top of the criminal.
"I heard the screeching halt of the car, I heard a lot of screaming, and I started running towards the hills," he said. "And that's when I felt this warm fluid going out of my neck."
His throat had been slashed. As Ortega collapsed, he found a cell phone deep in his pocket.
"I'm going to keep this because it saved my life," he said, holding up the phone.
He called for help and it arrived. Ortega now wears a beard to cover the physical scar.
"I think the biggest scar is mentally," he said.
Cloonan has just opened an office in Mexico. Sixty-five percent of his worldwide business is in Latin America, and he believes it will only increase.
"I don't know what the Mexican government can do to prevent this from happening. It's ill-equipped to really do this," Cloonan said.
His company, Clayton Consulting, has handled 700 kidnapping cases around the world. Only one person was killed, and it was in Mexico.
If someone is kidnapped, Cloonan's people do the negotiating and the ransom drop.
"We're from the FBI, from the CIA and from the U.S. military," Cloonan said.
Corporations and individual families buy the insurance, and they get more than just kidnapping negotiations and random included in the policy.
"If you needed reconstructive surgery because of mutilation, it's covered," Cloonan said.
If you tell anyone you have K and R insurance, it's automatically cancelled.
Ortega doesn't need that insurance — he's never going back to Mexico.
"Everything I had I sold to my employees," he said.
But for those with family in Mexico, there is no escape.
"You're always afraid that something might happen," Diaz said.
Maybe it's because of the K & R insurance, Jack?
Yeeeeeeaah... Let's give 'em all amnesty.
Just doing the work most Americans won't do.
Denzel Washington is great in that one.
Old Mexico Ping!
Kidnapping is a growing business in Mexico.
That's a myth. Most people outside the major cities own weapons. The price of ammo is very high though. With the influx of all these cartel types, more and more citizens have guns.
SS, do you have the link for the Mexican nationals who were busted for buying ammo in Larado?
Oh, that's comforting. "I'm not worried, I've got kidnapping insurance."
Actually, this sounds like a really great "get-rich-quick" scheme. Is there an application process? Who's the HR director? Would the money I extort be tax-free?
Thanks!
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