Kidnapped in Mexico

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mexico, with its history of drug-war violence and corrupt police, has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world. Official figures for 2015 state that just over 1500 people were taken. Unofficially the figures are said to be much higher…..running into the tens of thousands. In the past the crime tended to target the rich but now it has become much more egalitarian. Victims these days are often shopkeepers, taxi drivers, service employees and people working in Mexico’s informal economy. Victims tend to be young – students with parents willing to pay ransoms, are frequently targeted. Kidnapping and ransom operations form a large part of drug cartels’ criminal portfolio. With a lack of trust in the authorities there’s been a significant rise in the number of private negotiators who deal with the ransom negotiations. The BBC’s Vladmir Hernandez has obtained exclusive access into the world of these private negotiators and tells their rarely told story. He also has a disturbing interview with a kidnapper.

Warning: this programme contains strong language and graphic description of violence

Produced by John Murphy

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a BBC podcast.
0:02.0	You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use at BBCWorld Service.com slash podcasts.
0:08.0	Hello, I'm Bladimir Hernandez and this is A Feinment on the BBC World Service.
0:17.0	I'm trying, but I have only managed to get a small amount of money about 5,000 pesos.
0:27.0	I don't care what you have to do to just get my money or I'm going to kill your brother. Is that clear?
0:36.0	Yes, yes.
0:38.0	This is a police recording of a genuine kidnap case in Mexico. You can hear the voices of a kidnapper talking on the phone and the victim's brother.
0:46.0	The calls become even more aggressive and foul mouth.
0:50.0	You son of a bitch, you are trying to give me less than what you have
0:55.2	If I had the money I would give it to you
0:58.7	Listen to me well now. You son of a bitch, you faulty dog.
1:03.0	Tell your father that I'm going to kill his son
1:05.8	if I don't hear anything tomorrow.
1:08.8	Mexico has one of the highest rates of kidnapping in the world. It used to be the rich who were targets, but more recently, kidnappers have been taken all sorts of people, rich and poor alike.
1:20.0	In assignment this week, I'll be talking to negotiators who help victims
1:24.7	families deal with a frightening and distressing calls from criminals.
1:28.4	And a warning, this program contains some strong language, not least from a man who makes his living,
1:34.4	kidnapping people.
1:36.0	There are young men like me who look normal, but we are very sick in our brains.
1:41.5	So that's who the cartels employ. Some of us go into this business because we are
1:46.0	mad. Others because we are rebelling. I see myself as a good person, but if you heard me, I'm going to fuck you up me I'm going to fuck you up I'm going to kill you
1:57.2	It was just an ordinary morning in central Mexico I was saying goodbye to my husband and my daughters because they were going to school.
	...

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