sr speech 24457

Hello, my name is Ken Corgan. I'm a

staff interpreter in the English booth

in the European Parliament. And I'm

going to be talking to you about a

phenomenon known as express kidnapping.

This is a form of kidnapping which has

just been uh in the news lately. It

developed recently in South America. And

I'll explain what it is during the

course of the speech. There aren't any

names of people in the speech at all.

And the only name you might not be 100%

familiar with is the capital of

Venezuela, which is called Karakas. C A

R A C A S. But if you're ready, we'll

begin the speech.

Now,

Mr. Chairman, we've all seen films or TV

programs where the son or daughter of a

powerful politician or millionaire is

kidnapped. The kidnapping usually

involves some elaborate plan which in

turn involves people wearing masks and a

lot of shooting. The victim is

blindfolded and tied up in a basement

somewhere. And then there's always a

dramatic phone call to the distraught

parents

who are told that they need to provide a

very large ransom very quickly. The uh

FBI gets involved in the case if it's an

American show. They uh listen to the

recordings of the call. They try to

listen to the background noise to see if

there's a train or the noise of a

factory so they can localize where the

uh person is being held. And they always

tell the uh father or the mother to try

to keep the kidnapper talking. It

usually ends quite happily.

Now, although that is still a very uh

popular, if that's the right word, form

of kidnapping, a new form of kidnapping

has developed in South America in recent

years, and it's called Express

Kidnapping. In fact, Express Kidnapping

was the name of a film released in

Venezuela in 2005.

The Venezuelan government denounce the

film as a liel. But the film does, I

fear, paint a fairly accurate picture of

what life is like in Caracus, which is a

capital of one of the most violent

countries in the whole world. Uh 21,000

murders were committed in Venezuela in

2013, an almost astonishingly large

number, and kidnappings are very rife

there as well. But let me explain what

express kidnapping is and how it differs

from the normal form of kidnapping.

It started in Mexico City and it's

marked by various things which

distinguish it from what we might call

normal kidnapping. First of all, it's of

a much shorter duration. It's usually

less than 48 hours. Second of all, lower

ransoms are demanded by the kidnappers.

We're normally talking about $250,000

rather than the standard 2 million. It's

easier, therefore, for the family to

raise the money, and it's easier for the

kidnappers as well. If you think about

it, long-term kidnapping is a rather

complicated business. You need to find a

place where you know that you won't be

disturbed when you're holding your

victim. You need to be able to pro

provide food for the victim and you need

to be able to make sure the victim is

constantly guarded. All of these things

are quite complicated and all of them

avoid are avoided with express

kidnapping where the victim is

frequently simply put face down on the

floor of a car with a gun held to their

head for the 48 hours of the kidnapping.

It also means of course that the

kidnappers are able to strike again very

very quickly afterwards and thus

although they make less money with every

kidnapping they're able to carry out

more and pro thus maximize their

profits.

There's another form of express

kidnapping

which is becoming increasingly popular.

This is the one where the victim's own

credit cards and cash cards are used to

remove money from cash machines. The

family, that's to say, isn't contacted

at all. The way it works is very simple.

The victim is placed on the floor of a

car, as I described earlier. Their cash

cards and credit cards are taken, and

the codes to operate the machines are

extorted through threats of violence.

The kidnappers take the money out,

usually at about 5 minutes to midnight.

They then take it out when the next day

has begun, five or 10 minutes later, and

they get two lots of cash and the

victim, we hope, is released.

This is a new method of kidnapping, and

it's given rise to various problems in

countries such as Venezuela. The

reported numbers of kidnappings in

Venezuela are about 365 a year, one

every day. It's pretty certain, however,

that the actual number of kidnappings is

much higher than that. And the

kidnappers are now even moved down a

little bit lower in the social scale. Uh

children are being kidnapped from school

campuses. Uh students are being snatched

from bus stops and old age pensioners

are being taken in shopping malls. The

sums of money asked for are even lower

than before, sort of $400 or $200. But

it means that people's lives are often

ruined as they desperately try to raise

the money to rescue their loved ones.

So what can we do? The Venezuelans have

come up with the idea of deterrence,

increasing the sentence. That's to say,

kidnapping now carries a mandatory

30-year penalty in Venezuela. But a

rather clever idea was invented by

somebody in the United States. This idea

was simply that you would have two codes

for your cards. That's to say the normal

code that you would use if you were

buying groceries in the supermarket or

petrol in a petrol station. The other

code you would use only when you would

you had been kidnapped and you you would

give it to your kidnappers.

When the kidnappers use the code, they

would get the money in the normal way,

but a message would automatically be

sent to the police telling them that the

person had been kidnapped and of course

being able to give them the name and the

address. I find this actually rather

worrying. And I say that because

normally what happens in America happens

very shortly afterwards in Europe. And

if the Americans are worried about

express kidnapping, perhaps we should be

as well. Thank you very much.