Kidnappings

It’s funny how all of a sudden, things that supposedly didn’t happen anymore, like kidnappings, well they do. :p

Not long ago I was chatting with someone on a survival board and he told me he read a report were supposedly it’s been years since anyone was kidnapped in Argentina, to what I said BS, because I knew well enough that people in my neighborhood were being kidnapped occasionally, and there were several kidnapping attempts as well.
Doesn’t take a genius to figure it happens in other parts of town as well.

And here is another lesson: Media is owned by people with interests. They don’t do it just because they don’t have better things to do with their time, they do it for money.

If a big fish comes and suggest the owners of these networks that it would be good for them to “contribute” or “help” or “support” a certain political agenda, they will.

This means that “negative” news, well, lets give it 2 minutes to the guy that went missing last week, and lets do a 15 minute report on how a cat breastfeeds an orphan puppy, and how that’s a miracle of life and so on… oh, there’s a serial rapist that raped over 50 women in x city ( in my case x city would be Cordoba and police have no idea who he is, but you don’t want to trouble your silly head with that ugly stuff, lets go back to the puppy thing.

Back to kidnappings, point is, kidnappings are a way of making money used all over the world. There are still places were this isn’t happening, such as first world countries, but in several continents mankind is the same, and usually have similar attitudes when it comes to crime.
South America, Africa, Asia or ex soviet union nations, people find out that it’s easy to negotiate with someone when you offer them, say 1.000 dollars for his kid’s hand, 10.000 for the head, what the heck I’ll offer you a package on sale, you can have your kid back for 50.000.
How’s that for a monopolized market?
So these kidnappings that supposedly weren’t going on are obviously still occurring, and there was a report today on TV.

A few things to keep note of:

*Many of these gangs have cops, either active duty or retired.
Specially those that lost their jobs after the crisis, seems they changed sides and use their experience to commit crimes.
They have surveillance and weapons skills, so they are harder to defend from,( but not impossible)

*Family members must be communicated at all times (cell phones for everyone)
*Keeping your mouth shut about purchases, transactions and anything that could lead to the economic level of the family.

*Police uniforms are just that. A few days ago a person got kidnapped when stopped by criminals wearing uniforms, in a mock vehicle control post.

*The usual security precautions should be exercised as well, but once they target you it’s hard to avoid or escape from them all the time.

*Sometimes they gather information through phone calls. Done give up your name and other personal information to anyone on the phone.
When asked, I simply answer that I’m not ok with telling such personal data, and most people understand that you prefer to be cautious. Keep and eye on paper mail as well. It has a lot of information that can be used against you.

As things get worse, expect some people with military or police training to change sides and get involved in criminal activities.

FerFAL