Banker Vanishes; Mexican Stocks Fall 67.85 Points

The apparent kidnaping of the chairman of Mexico’s largest bank caused Mexican stock prices--which have been sliding since the New Year’s Day rebellion in Southern Mexico--to tumble again Tuesday as investors questioned the nation’s potential as a model for Third World reform.

Amid official silence, Mexican newspapers reported that Alfredo Harp Helu, a billionaire financier who heads Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival, was taken from his car Monday morning by armed men as he was driving near his home in the fashionable Mexico City suburb of Coyoacan.

“Everything appears to indicate that there was a kidnaping,” said a Mexican law-enforcement official who asked not to be identified.

The news comes after the shock of the bloody peasant uprising in Chiapas and the possible rogue presidential candidacy of Chiapas peace envoy Manuel Camacho Solis. The prospect of a Camacho candidacy has troubled some investors worried both about his commitment to Salinas-style economic reforms and to political continuity.

Labor problems also loom, notably a threatened strike by Aeromexico pilots scheduled to begin March 25.

But the disappearance of Harp, 50, a rising star in Mexican business and closely identified with President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s economic policies, was a particular blow to investors and a reminder of the risks still present in Mexico.

Mexico’s Bolsa stock index closed down 67.85 points, or 2.8%, at 2,362.03. The Bolsa is down more than 9% since the start of the year, and the peso has been sliding against the dollar, chiefly due to concerns among foreigners.

Rafael Bello, a Latin American markets analyst with Morgan Stanley in New York, said the apparent kidnaping hurt the Mexican market because Harp is “a very visible businessman and associated with the group of Salinas. . . . It’s another negative after Chiapas.”

Harp’s company is a financial services giant that operates Banco Nacional de Mexico, or Banamex, the nation’s largest bank in terms of assets, with about $45 billion.

Still unclear late Tuesday was whether the kidnaping was politically motivated or one of the growing number of abductions for ransom, a burgeoning industry in Mexico and a source of worry for Mexico’s colony of foreign executives.

About 100 businessmen were kidnaped in Mexico City alone last year, and scores of abductions were reported in other cities, including Tijuana, Chihuahua and Durango, according to published reports.

Unlike U.S. law, victims’ families are not required by Mexican law to report kidnapings and often negotiate secretly with abductors to pay ransoms totaling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per victim.

Neither Banamex officials nor the federal attorney general’s office for the federal district of Mexico City would comment on the disappearance of Harp, except to quote from a three-paragraph news release issued by Banamex late Monday night.

The release confirmed the banker’s disappearance but stated that the bank would have no further comment so as to protect Harp’s physical safety. The bank also said it has asked that the government not intervene in Harp’s disappearance, a common occurrence when families are negotiating with kidnapers.

Mexico’s Federal Judicial Police have formed a special unit to investigate kidnapings in response to an increase in abductions for ransom during recent years.

Times staff writer Tom Petruno contributed to this report.