Killing sparks outrage

last updated 8 January 2015

Buenos Aires

Public outrage has curbed a wave of small-time abductions terrorizing Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. “Express kidnappings” net desperate criminals as little as a few hundred dollars, but they have become common as the country wrestles with the worst recession in its history. Most victims have been released unharmed after just a few hours. When kidnappers stabbed and killed 17-year-old Diego Peralta in August, angry citizens took to the streets. One mob torched a police station. Another marched and chanted, “We want to live in safety!” Over the next month, the rate of quickie kidnappings fell from four a day to zero, said Carlos Sablich, a police official. “It’s almost as if the kidnappers themselves were scared,” he said.