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'Express kidnappings' terrorize Argentina
( 2002-09-29 11:08 ) (7 )

Jorge Milito (L), is comforted by his son Diego (R) while talking to journalists in the front door of his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, after being freed by kidnappers who held him captive overnight, August 30, 2002. Milito, whose two sons Diego and Gabriel both play for First Division soccer teams, was freed after the family allegedly paid a high sum of money to his captors. Gripped by its worst-ever economic crisis, rising unemployment and deepening poverty, Argentina has been hit by a wave of violent crime and kidnappings that have shaken the nation to its core. [Reuters]

The gruesome murder last month of 17-year-old kidnapping victim Diego Peralta did what police crackdowns and public protests had failed to do.

It brought a brief pause in the wave of abductions that have shocked this nation of 37 million.

Caught in the worst economic crisis in its history, Argentina is witnessing a surge in violent crime. Among the most worrisome trends is a rash of so-called express kidnappings: abductions of working class people who typically are held for a few hours until their relatives scrape together ransoms of as little as a few hundred dollars.

Peralta was snatched on his way to school July 5. Three men wearing police uniforms pulled him from a taxi. He was originally thought to be one more express kidnapping victim.

But the student's abductors demanded 200,000 pesos, about $56,000. After negotiating for nearly three weeks, the boy's parents arranged to leave 9,000 pesos (worth about $2,500) and $2,000 at a train station.

Alarmed at hearing nothing more from the kidnappers, the Peraltas went public with their story, drawing an appeal for Diego's release from President Eduardo Duhalde.

The student was found Aug. 12 floating face down in a flooded quarry. His hands were bound, his neck was slashed, and he had several stab wounds. Hours later, an angry mob torched a police station near Peralta's home. ''Could this have happened five years ago?'' asks Diego's mother, Emilsa. ''No, it was another Argentina then.''

Indeed, Argentina's four-year recession has cost the country its reputation as the safest in South America. Half the populace lives in poverty. Joblessness is running at 22%. Many Argentines won't wear wedding rings and other jewelry in public for fear of attracting thieves. Others no longer hail taxis because of a rash of robberies committed by criminals posing as cab drivers.

Carlos Sablich, a top federal police official, blames the country's collapsing economy and a government-ordered freeze on bank withdrawals for the wave of express kidnappings. Thugs who would ordinarily rob banks and mug victims at ATMs don't have as many opportunities now that bank lobbies are packed with extra guards and depositors are blocked from getting at their money.

Instead, the criminals stage quickie abductions, hoping to squeeze victims for money they have stashed outside the bank, Sablich says.

Until Peralta's murder, most victims came away with nothing more than a few bruises. The Peralta case was ''a very, very striking exception,'' Sablich says. ''Abductions halted for several days after that. It's almost as if the kidnappers themselves were scared and felt a line had been crossed.''

Police say express kidnappings are taking place in and around the capital at a rate of three or four a day. But Argentine media speculate the number is higher because many abductions probably go unreported. And not everybody buys Sablich's theory that the culprits are street toughs. Many Argentines accuse police and political bosses in the poor barrios outside Buenos Aires of running kidnapping rings.

The Buenos Aires Herald speculated that the abductions might be the ''underpaid police's route to pocket money.'' Sablich insists his federal force is clean.

Argentines are fed up. Thousands marched in Buenos Aires recently, blowing whistles, waving flags, clapping and banging pots to protest the surge in violent crime. Relatives of kidnapping and murder victims marched with photos of their loved ones and shouted, ''We want to live in safety!''

The government has formed a 200-member anti-kidnapping police task force and beefed up street patrols. Security companies have enjoyed huge sales of alarms, video cameras, home safes and other equipment.

Newspaper stories give tips to help readers thwart kidnappers. ''Remember to walk on the sidewalk against the oncoming traffic,'' cautioned La Nacion, a daily newspaper. An Argentine university has begun offering a course on ways to negotiate with kidnappers to obtain the release of a victim.

Quickie kidnappings, long a trend in Mexico, Venezuela and other Latin American countries, have occasionally turned comical here. The mother of the mayor of a Buenos Aires suburb recently spent the day with kidnappers, apparently without realizing it. Her abductors asked for a tour of her community projects, then took her sightseeing at a historic cathedral. They treated her to lunch while their partners demanded ransom from her family. The criminals dropped her off later near her home, where she was stunned to learn there had been a manhunt for her.

Not everyone is amused. Soccer star Juan Roman Riquelma recently demanded that his Boca Juniors club transfer his rights to a European club after he paid $160,000 to release his brother Christian. The athlete, who vowed he would never again play for an Argentine club, went to Spain's Barcelona club.

Emilsa Peralta says she hopes her son's murder brings Argentines together. ''People really want a new Argentina,'' she says. ''They want fewer deaths, less misery and less corruption.''