MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Express” kidnappings alarm Buenos Aires

A new wave of “express” kidnappings is causing alarm among the residents of Buenos Aires and its suburbs.

The modus operandi of the crime, which began to come into vogue during the country's 2001 economic crisis, is to abduct a person, often not wealthy, and oblige him or her to withdraw relatively small amounts of ransom at ATMs, or to demand payment of a few hundred or few thousand dollars from relatives.

In Buenos Aires and its populous surrounding area, on Monday at least four express kidnappings were carried out and in one of those cases, the victim - a 72-year-old pensioner jumped from the automobile in which he had been taken captive by the criminals.

According to a report prepared by the attorney general's office which on Tuesday was widely discussed in the Argentine press, during the 12 months beginning in April 2005, 44 kidnappings for ransom were carried out and about 80% of them seem to have been express jobs.

The government's special unit for investigating kidnappings said in its report, which it also released on Tuesday to the press that although the figure of 44 kidnappings was considerably lower than the number of such crimes during the same period in past years there had been "a notable resurgence" of this type of crime in recent months.

Authorities registered 284 kidnappings in 2002, 508 in 2003 and 398 in 2004.

One of the cases that recently had a major impact on public opinion is that of a car dealership owner who was taken hostage on June 8 and has not been freed by his captors despite the fact that his family paid a ransom of 25.800 US dollars.