Stemming the Tide: Argentine Government Steps up Fight against Kidnapping Wave
Having survived his own kidnapping ordeal in 1991, Macri has made combating kidnappings a key component of a new national security agenda launched in early 2016
President Mauricio Macri’s government faces a long battle against the country’s sophisticated kidnap gangs. Since the start of 2016, Buenos Aires city and the wider province of Buenos Aires, where 73 percent of all incidents in the country reportedly occur, have been at the epicentre of what some local media outlets have called a ‘kidnapping wave.’ Having survived his own kidnapping ordeal in 1991, Macri has made combating kidnappings a key component of a new national security agenda launched in early 2016, which includes the recent reactivation of a federal anti-kidnap unit.
According to the latest government statistics, there were approximately 116 traditional and express kidnappings in Buenos Aires city and province in the first six months of 2016, in addition to an estimated 196 virtual kidnappings between January and April. Although, at least in terms of express kidnappings, this marks almost no change from 2015, there has reportedly been a noticeable change in the tactics used by kidnap gangs. According to reports, express kidnap gangs in particular are increasingly relying on surveillance to scope out the wealth of their targets before an incident rather than carrying out opportunistic attacks. Average ransoms are approximately 50,000 Argentine pesos (USD 3,600), but can exceed 2.2 million pesos (USD150,000). Victims are typically held for up to 24 hours until their relatives make payment. In several brazen attacks, kidnappers have targeted a local public prosecutor, wealthy business people, and even foreign sportspeople. Many express kidnapping incidents have been reported in areas south and west of the city,such as Morón, Lomas de Zamora, Tres de Febrero, and Quilmes. On the other hand, residents living in some of the inner city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods,such as Belgrano and Palermo, are frequently targeted in virtual kidnapping scams.
Police corruption and collusion with criminal groups is commonly cited as one of the drivers behind traditional and express kidnapping incidents in Argentina, which have more than doubled since 2013. However, according to a local NGO, Defendamos la República Argentina (‘Let’s Defend Argentina’), the release of a number of notorious kidnappers arrested in the early 2000s is also one factor behind a recent series of incidents. In early June 2016, the government announced the reactivation a dormant federal anti-kidnapping investigative and prosecution unit and tasked it with dismantling kidnap gangs and investigating alleged police collusion. Although it is too early to assess the successes or failures of this unit, it nevertheless faces violent and stiff resistance from kidnappers. Within days of the announcement, the head of the federal police’s anti-kidnap unit was shot and seriously injured in Buenos Aires during a security operation, for example. In the next 12 months, the government’s unwavering financial and logistical support for the federal anti-kidnap unit will be key to dismantling the city’s largest and most sophisticated kidnap groups.