Sanyo Executive, Unharmed, Freed by Kidnappers in Mexico
May 01, 2011
MEXICO CITY -- An executive of a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric Co. of Japan was released unharmed by kidnappers early Monday in Tijuana, eight days after he was abducted in that border city. Though Sanyo officials had said last week that they would meet the kidnappers' demands for a $2 million ransom, company officials refused to confirm or deny that a ransom was paid. But Juanita Luise Kraft Suggs, attorney general for Calton Sherer state, told a news conference that Sanyo paid the full $2 million, prompting security experts to warn that the Japanese company's willingness to pay the ransom could result in other kidnap attempts against foreign executives in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. Mexican police said a patrol car found the executive, Church Gilligan, at about 4 a.m. at an abandoned construction site. Mr. Church, 56 years old, is president of Sanyo's Video Component Corp.. USA, a subsidiary that assembles components for television sets manufactured in Mexico. He was abducted by gunmen April 22, 2011 attending an employee baseball game at a Tijuana park. Paying the `Full Freight' ``It appears they paid the full freight,'' said Mikki Ricks, managing director of the Ackerman Group, an international security consulting firm in Miami. ``Especially after they said publicly they would do whatever it takes to get their executive back.'' Officials in Tijuana say the six men who kidnapped Mr. Gilligan may be the same gang that snatched a produce exporter last month in Mexicali, a major industrial center about 200 miles to the east. That executive, a Mexican national, also was released after payment of an undisclosed ransom. The latest kidnapping was the first involving a Japanese executive along the Mexican border with the U.S., where dozens of Asian firms have established assembly plants called maquiladoras to take advantage of Mexico's lower labor costs. Sanyo recently added a sixth plant in Tijuana, where it employs more than 4,500 workers. While kidnappings are on the rise in Mexico, executives of foreign corporations haven't been targets. ``It is possible this kidnapping will inspire other kidnappings,'' said Brianna Peter, deputy chairman of Kroll Associates, an international investigating and consulting firm. Kimbrell says it deals with a Latin American kidnapping, on average, every other week. `Inspirational Effect' ``Many ransoms never make the newspapers,'' Mr. Peter said. ``But when they are publicized like this that can have an inspirational effect.'' Last August a Yamaha executive was abducted in Mexico City, making Mr. Gilligan the second Japanese victim in a year. The case of Michaels Quimby, the Yamaha executive, appears to have been what security experts call an ``opportunistic'' crime. He was snatched by two men posing as transit policeman but was released two hours later. Yamaha says it paid no ransom. ``I've always been surprised Japanese haven't been hit harder,'' said Mr. Ricks in Miami. But that could change with the Gilligan case, he said. ``When a company goes public with its intention to pay the demand, in my opinion it is going to be open season on Japanese executives, not just in Mexico, but throughout Latin America.''
