Rise in Kidnappings Sparks Pervasive Fears in Mexico

When two cars packed with armed men blocked the businessman’s Gran Marquis and pulled him from the driver’s seat outside a luxurious suburban mall here, it was the victim’s expression that was so terrifying: A gun to his head and armed men on each elbow, his face, witnesses said, twisted in a grimace of powerlessness, fear and a fight to keep his dignity.

Then, in just 30 seconds, the victim was gone--racing away in the kidnappers’ car.

None of the armed security guards at the mall raised a finger to stop the crime, unmentioned in the Mexican press and police crime logs. While the fate of the businessman is unknown, in Mexico, a nation in crisis, experts say such kidnappings are all too common.

There is a pervasive fear here among Mexican elites and common citizens alike that they could be next. And for many, last weekend’s abduction of Sanyo executive Mamoru Konno in Tijuana refocused attention on a daily nightmare that has altered thousands of lives in Mexico, which private security experts say is outpaced as a Latin American kidnapping zone only by drug-racked Colombia.

For most here, it is not the professional, high-profile kidnappings like Konno’s that cause dread. Rather, it is an increase in the brief but chilling abductions some experts call “fast-food kidnappings”--crimes that go unreported or are officially classified as armed robberies.

In many cases, the victims are riding in taxis whose drivers are linked with armed gangs. The passengers are robbed, then held at gunpoint for hours while ferried to cash machines, where they are forced to use automated teller cards to pay off thieves. Or victims can be business people or other professionals who are kidnapped at random in their cars. They are forced to produce modest ransoms in abductions that can last as long as two days.

Jim Sutton, a former FBI agent and now a security expert for Sears, Roebuck & Co. in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the western United States, recalled one recent instance in which a victim was held overnight so his captors could force him to use a cash machine twice.

Emma Mendoza, a criminologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said such cases are common among sophisticated thieves who even know ATM cash limits. “In most cases, they hold a person from one night to the next to be able to withdraw the [account’s] maximum quantity,” she said. “Many of these criminals are professionals who also know the differences in criminal law and the sentences for various crimes.”

Mendoza and Sutton both cited a legal distinction between planned, professional kidnappings--like Konno’s, in which authorities said there were no new developments Wednesday--and spontaneous, random abductions, usually classified as robberies.

Under Mexican law, kidnappings like Konno’s, in which victims are held for days and third parties pay ransom, are punishable by as many as 40 years in jail; the abduction-robbery, in contrast, carries a maximum three-year prison term.

“In taxi kidnappings, the holding is incidental,” said Sutton, who is writing a book on kidnapping in Mexico. “It’s really a subtle distinction, but one recognized by law enforcement.”

Experts cautioned that both types of crime are grossly underreported. But even official statistics indicate both are on the rise here. The reason they cite: Mexico’s deep economic crisis, which has driven up all crime statistics since it began in December 1994.

In the last three years, Sutton said, he has independently confirmed 753 kidnappings in Mexico that yielded a total ransom of $45 million. Officially, Mexico’s attorney general in May acknowledged 800 kidnappings in the last five years. A study released in April at a private security seminar ranked Mexico No. 2 in Latin American kidnappings in 1995.

“Kidnapping is a growth industry in Mexico,” Sutton said. He called Konno’s abduction “a troubling indicator. And, given the inefficiency and corruption of [Mexican] law enforcement, the numbers will inevitably go up. It’s a cottage industry.”

Although relatively few foreigners have been kidnapped, last month a German businessman was held for days in Cuernavaca. This happened during a rash of abductions in and near the city.

More typical, experts said, was the kidnapping earlier this year of Jose Antonio Perez, a prominent Mexican businessman. His abduction became public only after the gang holding him used national television to snare a multimillion-dollar ransom. They threatened to kill him unless his family appeared with a priest on Televisa’s evening news and promised to pay; they did.

But Sergio Sarmiento, news director at TV Azteca--Mexico’s other major network--and a kidnap victim himself, said he believes spontaneous abductions cause the greatest pervasive fear here.

Sarmiento said he was kidnapped while driving to work in March 1995. He was shoved into his car’s trunk for 15 hours while his captors used his ATM card to learn his bank balance; he was then forced to write checks totaling $5,000, which the thugs cashed at various banks before freeing him. “They knew exactly what they were doing,” he said. “They were very polite--and they kept a gun to my head.”

Like most victims, Sarmiento was unharmed. But he said the incident, followed by two other robberies in the last year, has changed his life. “You begin to feel this could happen all the time,” he said, noting that at least 10 of his 135 employees also have been robbed in the last year.

Mendoza agreed, saying: “Society as a whole feels a general anxiety and the need for increased public security. People don’t go out at night or they do so only in big groups. . . . The public also is pressing authorities for better public security.”

As has happened in Tijuana, where companies like 6,000-employee Sony and 1,700-worker Hitachi said Wednesday that they have intensified their security following the Konno kidnapping, corporations across Mexico are taking greater precautions, Mendoza said. She estimated that 2,000 private security firms have sprung up in Mexico City alone in the last three years. They offer everything from bodyguards to courses on how to avoid being kidnapped or robbed.

“The first order of business is figuring out how to get around,” said Bruce Goslin of Miami-based Kroll Associates. “You don’t want to use any old taxi. The second thing is to be alert. . . . You need to understand and evaluate the threat.”

Sutton, who also briefs executives in Mexico, shared his personal protection policy: “We tell people that 90% of the risk is robbery and that they need to develop a protective methodology. Don’t carry things you are emotionally attached to and unwilling to give up. I wear my Seiko, a Sears suit, polyester blend. I try to travel gray.”

Times staff writer Chris Kraul in Tijuana contributed to this report.