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Americans at Risk at Home and Abroad as Economics Drive Kidnappings In the 60s and 70s, kidnapping was a way to make a political statement, a way to embarrass or destabilize governments. Now, kidnappings are more about economics. You don't have to be a head of state or a politician to be kidnapped. You only have to have money. Or more accurately, your kidnappers only have to perceive that you have money. American tourists and businessmen anywhere are perceived to be incredibly wealthy by foreign standards. And this sets you up for those people who would profit from your ransom. In fact, the growth of the "adventure" tourism business is guiding unsuspecting Americans into the very regions that are ripe for the business of ransoming for profit. Put yourself in the place of Spokane neuropsychologist Donald Hutchings and his wife, Jane Schelly who, while hiking in the Himalayas of Kashmir on a dream vacation, are abducted with four other tourists. How about the Salt Lake City businessman who was kidnapped along Mexico's central Pacific coast? Consider the New Jersey computer scientist who is abducted in the rainforests of Ecuador while birdwatching with his teenage daughter. Or there was the group of eco-tourists dining at a Costa Rican resort, only to be robbed by a group of ten masked men brandishing AK-47s and have two of their group taken into captivity deep in the jungle. Your risk of being kidnapped abroad these days is very, very real. Who are they? As increased globalization occurs, there are more opportunities for kidnapping. As the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows worldwide, there is an increased incentive for kidnapping. Criminal enterprises, large and small, are finding the ancient practice of holding someone for ransom to be highly profitable. These enterprises include rebel groups looking to fund their cause, drug dealers looking for start up capital, and corrupt government officials and (usually) police or military members. They include professional criminals in Italy as well as the emerging organized crime syndicates in Russia. They can include disenfranchised employees or former employees or bitter relatives and ex-spouses or lovers. They can include feudal warlords in foreign lands or local losers in your city. The rewards And the rewards for your kidnappers can be huge. Typically, ransoms for Americans, British and Germans are in the million dollar range which is dramatically more than the $100,000 they might get for a notable local family member. Some of the biggest ransoms ever were the $60 million paid in 1990 in Hong Kong for a billionaire property tycoon and $60 million paid in 1975 for the release of two brothers, Juan and Jorge Born, in Argentina. Interestingly, the Hong Kong abduction involved a victim, Teddy Wang, who had been previously kidnapped in 1983. Those kidnappers reportedly made $11 million for Wang's release. Unfortunately, Wang was not so lucky after the 1990 abduction -- his body has never been found. In 1977, a German company paid $65 million to get back a top-level executive kidnapped in that country. Again, economics comes into play here. Columbian rebels raised $328.9 million from kidnappings between 1991 and 1994. It has been reported by Colombia's President Ernesto Samper that FARC, (the largest guerrilla group in that nation) alone has raised $600 million from a combination of kidnapping and narcotics trafficking. However, the take can also be pitifully small. In Mexico and Brazil, you might be kidnapped and held until you empty out your daily allowable amount from the local bank ATM. Or you might be held over a brief period of time (like a week) where the kidnappers take out your daily ATM limit each day. In Mexico and many Central American countries, you can be kidnapped in what is more like a shakedown or robbery than a classic ransom situation. I have talked to several tourists who had the following scenario happened to them: you're driving along a rural road at dusk or after dark. As you round a sharp bend, you are unable to avoid some sort of sharp objects in the road. This can be as sophisticated as a movable plank with spikes or as low-tech as glass or sharp rocks. When your car is disabled, a group of armed men approach you. Usually, a truck or van parked on the side of the road starts up and slowly approaches the scene. The men begin to take your possessions and rummage through your car. You are loaded into the truck and driven to another location. You might be asked again for more money. In the cases I know of personally, the tourists were simply abandoned far from their car with no injuries. But there have been some high-profile cases where the victims, including two American college women, who were slain after they were robbed. The Top 10 According to Ann Hagedorn Auerbach, the top countries for kidnapping:
Auerbach says specific areas and regions that have considerable kidnapping activity include:
*I've had subsequent conversations with a resident of Aruba who disputes this claim. First of all, Aruba is considered to be off the coast of Venezuela, not Colombia. And the island prides itself on a low crime rate (2004: 2 murders, 6 rapes with population of 92,000) with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway (June 2005) as the first possible abduction of an American in recent history.
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