BOLIVIA: Mother of Bolivian immigrant to Spain whose severed arm was dumped in a rubbish bin talks about her son's ordeal

Record ID: 348395

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Mother of Bolivian immigrant to Spain whose severed arm was dumped in a rubbish bin talks about her son's ordeal
  • Date: 17th June 2009
  • Summary: NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2009 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA6BLXVU75SQ305NCYYUNS0TAE6
  • Story Text: Migrants are being kidnapped, cruelly treated and kept in inhumane conditions for long periods of time by criminals asking for ransom money with cases on the rise, the nation's top human rights official said during a news conference marred by a bomb threat on Monday (June 15).
    Offices of the country's human rights commission in Mexico City had to be evacuated after receiving a telephone threat. The head of the country's human rights commission, Jose Luis Soberanes, was at the venue at the time as well as several members of the media who were waiting for the delivery of a report about migrant kidnappings.
    The event was moved to a nearby location. Civil protection workers said no explosive artifacts were found at the offices.
    Soberanes said he didn't think the bomb threat happened by chance.
    "I don't believe in coincidences. Evidently knowing this meeting was taking place, knowing the media would attend, this has a meaning. We heard from the news that civil protection officials said they didn't find anything but it's a message for all of us," he told reporters.
    The national commission interviewed migrants during a six month period from September 2008 to February 2009 who said they had been victims of kidnappings, mostly along northern and southern borders of Mexico. The investigation details 198 cases involving 9,758 victims, i.e., more than 1,600 kidnappings that took place per month.
    Taking into account the figures obtained during the six-month investigation period, the commission estimates the number of kidnappings taking place per year could be about 400 and the number of victims involved could be 18,000 annually.
    Fleeing migrants usually fail to report abuses as they are escaping from authorities. Women are particularly vulnerable who are often raped or sold to people trafficking networks and forced to go into prostitution, with children who were accompanying the women, sometimes present.
    Soberanes said in average, ransom money demanded for the victims ranged from 1,500 to 5,000 dollars. It is estimated the kidnappers obtained 25 million dollars from the 9,758 identified victims in the investigation.
    "People who want impunity to continue with regards to migrant kidnappings. Gangs involved in this business, which is a 25 million dollar business and increasing, so logically they are more interested that this remains covered up, that it is not aired to the public opinion as we are doing so now," he said adding authorities had acted with impunity in these cases.
    Kidnapped migrants are mainly from Mexico and Central America but the report also includes kidnapped victims from South America.
    In one case, a woman from Honduras said she was kidnapped in Tabasco by a gang of 10 people who deceived her. The kidnappers told her they had spoken to a relative in the United States and had offered to take her there. The victim said she was held for three months and was continuously raped. The kidnappers finally released her after they received part of a ransom payment.
    Soberanes said that many violations were carried out by state public security corporations. The commission demands federal, state and municipal authorities act to avoid further migrant kidnappings and demanded the national system of public security generates mechanisms to punish these acts. The report also lists a series of recommendations for migration officials.
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