Kidnappings becoming part of life in Paraguay

[AmyStrange]

Kidnappings becoming part of life in Paraguay

A spate of high-profile kidnappings has Paraguayans worried that Latin America's growing crime wave has spilled across its borders.

BY PEDRO SERVIN
Associated Press

FROM: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/9940013.htm
ASUNCION, Paraguay - Gunmen abduct the daughter of a former Paraguayan president in a blaze of gunfire. The body of a kidnapped 10-year-old boy is found mutilated. A well-known businesswoman is still missing, long after her family paid a ransom for her release.

Paraguayans have been gripped by a string of high-profile kidnappings that have many worried a crime wave sweeping much of Latin America may now be reaching into this landlocked country of six million people. The kidnappings have dominated headlines and provoked a climate of insecurity in this impoverished South American country. On Thursday, about 5,000 Paraguayans took to the streets of the capital to protest increasing crime.

''There is a sense that robberies, assaults and kidnappings are quickly becoming everyday occurrences,'' said Antonio López, a 30-year-old pharmaceutical salesman.

Paraguay is battling a protracted recession brought on in part by financial troubles in neighboring Argentina. And events in Paraguay mirror similar kidnapping waves experienced by Mexico and Argentina when they suffered economic meltdowns in the mid-1990s and 2002, respectively.

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[peacetalksforall]

1. One day we're reading about Moon buying acres and acres of

property in Paraguay and the next we're reading about a giant increase in crime.