Being abducted by gunmen, held for weeks or months in horrific conditions and then forced to pay colossal sums to be freed has been the grim reality for thousands of Mexicans in recent years. But finally, after kidnappings reached a record level in Mexico in 2013, the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto launched a national campaign against the crime, led by the “anti-kidnapping tsar” Renato Sales.
Over the last 20 months, Sales has focused on building up anti-kidnapping units at both state and federal level and breaking up gangs specializing in the crime. The efforts appear to have had some success, with reported kidnapping going down 17 percent in 2014, and then 31 percent in the first half of 2015, according to police departments. In late August, Sales was promoted to become Mexico's new federal security chief, thanks to these results.
However, kidnapping rates are still at unacceptable levels, with 551 reported cases in the first half of this year. Anti-crime groups also say the government is underreporting the number of cases, with many family members of kidnapping victims scared to go to the police for fear their loved one will be murdered.
The group Alto al Secuestro, which gives independent advice to families of kidnap victims, reports about twice as many abductions as the police do. It says that 225 people were kidnapped across Mexico in July alone.
Middle Class Victims
Kidnapping first became a significant problem in Mexico in the 1990s. However, the numbers really shot to epidemic levels during the last decade. They went from 278 cases in 2005 to 1,222 cases in 2010 to the record 1,698 cases in 2013.
This rise coincided with an escalation in Mexico’s drug war and its massacres and shootouts. In some cases major drug cartels, such as the Zetas, diversified into kidnapping. In other cases the culprits are small independent gangs, who have taken advantage of the insecurity that overwhelmed police.
Kidnappers also changed their modus operandi and began going after middle class targets. While many victims in the 1990s were millionaires who paid seven-digit ransoms, many today are professionals, such as engineers or doctors, who pay $10,000 to $200,000 in ransom.
The vast majority of victims are Mexican citizens. The kidnappers usually like to follow and build up profiles of their targets, rather than pulling random travelers off the streets.
But some foreigners are targeted. In a travel warning, the U.S. State Department said, “more than 130 kidnappings of U.S. citizens were reported to the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Mexico between January and November of 2014.”
Policing or Prevention?
The experience of kidnapping around the world in recent decades shows that more effective policing will reduce rates. By its nature, the crime means that the perpetrators have to make some form of contact with someone associated with the victim to be able to collect the ransom payment. A good police department should be able use that exposure to catch them.
Effective policing has made kidnapping rare in the United States and Europe. It has also reduced rates drastically in Colombia, from more than 3,500 cases in 2000 to 288 last year, according to the national police.
There are signs that some state police departments in Mexico are also becoming more effective. An aggressive anti-kidnapping unit in Chihuahua State helped reduce the crime from 233 cases in 2009 to 32 cases in 2013.
However, Mexico continues to struggle with police corruption in many parts of the country, especially among the more than 2,000 municipal police forces. And sometimes officers themselves work for the criminal gangs. This was highlighted when municipal police in Guerrero State joined drug traffickers to abduct 43 students in 2014.
More work also needs to be done in crime prevention. A group of psychologists, coordinated by Mexico’s National Autonomous University, has been conducting interviews with kidnappers in prisons across the country.
The research finds that while a small number of kidnappers could be classified as clinical psychopaths, most are mentally normal but have suffered from traumatic experiences such as childhood abuse in marginalized areas. They often rise in the crime world gradually, starting with robbery and carjacking before graduating to kidnapping for ransom.
Journalist Ioan Grillo has covered security issues in Mexico since 2001. He is author of the book El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency.
