The Negotiator

A kidnap negotiation is often described as a game of chess between a kidnapper and a negotiator.

Every move leads to another from the kidnapper. The life of a person, sometimes even a young child, is what's at stake.

The negotiation has become such a skill - a game - that it's not only the police who are getting trained to do it.

Many criminals too have sought to make sure they have their own skilled negotiators.

Police say there are even “negotiators-for-hire” who offer their services to kidnappers.

The victims' negotiators, whether privately hired or working for the police, never speak directly to the kidnappers. Instead they nominate someone close to the victim to become the voice of the negotiation.

“We assess the candidate's temperament and abilities,” says Rafael, a police negotiator who cannot be identified by his real name. “We try to gauge how they react under pressure. Some people are very explosive, some are calm.”

 Sometimes people seem fine, but then fall apart when they first hear the kidnapper's voice… The truth is, it's an incredibly difficult job to handle the calls.”

“They get more and more aggressive, especially if the kidnappers' demands are not met immediately. That's where we try to help and provide support,” he says.

“Choosing the correct person to talk to the kidnappers is the key for success,” says Max Morales, a private kidnap negotiator for more than 20 years.

In choosing a candidate, negotiators will look for anything which could potentially provide an advantage with the kidnappers - gender, age, tone of voice, even their accent.

Police told Maria it was not a good idea for her to be the voice of this negotiation. She ignored their advice.

 There was no chance I wouldn't do it. This was about my daughters' safety.”

The negotiators will move into the victim's family house for the duration of the case, which can be a matter of days or weeks.

By staying inside they are available to give advice at all times. But it also means they can avoid being spotted by the kidnappers, who may be monitoring the property.

They will also be on hand to help the family deal with phone calls, to try to keep them thinking positively, and also, crucially, to help negotiate the ransom.

“This is a crime about greed, and it usually finishes with some money being paid,” says Morales.

 Our job is to try to make sure the money paid is not what the criminals ask for, because if you pay too quickly, you could be asked for more or even get kidnapped again.”

And if the person chosen to do the negotiations falters, the case starts to dangle on a thread. Changing negotiator midstream is risky too, says Morales, as it can make the kidnappers more anxious and that can be disastrous for the victims.

 Some of these kidnappers are pure evil. They sometimes hit the victims, rape them, burn them with cigarettes or a blowtorch or even mutilate them and send the body parts to the family.”

A police negotiator, who can't be identified, remembers the case of a kidnapper who used to send shocking videos of the victims to their families by WhatsApp.

If the victims were men he would show them being beaten up. If they were women or girls, he would apparently film himself touching them sexually.

However, when this kidnapper was finally captured, it was discovered that he had been staging the beatings by putting Bubble Wrap beneath the victim's clothes so they wouldn't be hurt too much.

He would also use some cunning camerawork to pretend that he had been fondling his female victims.

However Machiavellian this behaviour, it's considered an exception to the rule. Physical violence to victims is common, and often gangs get to be known by their sadistic practices.

One notorious gang was called “Nequis”, Spanish for “little fingers”, which they would cut off and send to victims' families.

And Mexico's most famous kidnapper, now in jail, was Daniel Arizmendi, also known as “The Ear Chopper”. What he did to his victims is self-explanatory.

“The riskiest moment is when you've paid the ransom and you lose communication with the criminals, as they have yet to fulfil the promise of freeing the victim,” says Morales.

Police say that the majority of cases end up in a rescue, or in a release, after a ransom is paid. But there are other cases when families pay and never hear from their loved ones again.

“We are sometimes able to match the criminals' voices to those in our database and that allows us to know who we're dealing with,” says the police negotiator.

“This sometimes allows us to know if it's a gang that wants a quick solution or if it's a group which rarely returns the victims even after payment has been made,” he says.

Private negotiators have tariffs, and some work for insurance companies (kidnap insurance is popular in Mexico).

On the other hand, the police negotiators work for free, and frown upon the use of private negotiators.

Those who can afford it reach out to private negotiators and tend to keep the cases hidden from the authorities. These cases rarely reach the official statistics.