CaboRon
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Chips Ahoy
Satellites track Mexico kidnap victims with chips By Mica Rosenberg
1 hour, 41 minutes ago
Affluent Mexicans, terrified of soaring kidnapping rates, are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so
satellites can help find them tied up in a safe house or stuffed in the trunk of a car.
Kidnapping jumped almost 40 percent between 2004 and 2007 in Mexico, according to official statistics. Mexico ranks with conflict zones like Iraq and
Colombia as among the worst countries for abductions.
The recent kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, the son of a well-known businessman, sparked an outcry in a country already hardened to crime.
More people, including a growing number of middle-class Mexicans, are seeking out the tiny chip designed by Xega, a Mexican security firm whose sales
jumped 13 percent this year. The company said it had more than 2,000 clients.
Detractors say the chip is little more than a gadget that serves no real security purpose.
The company injects the crystal-encased chip, the size and shape of a grain of rice, into clients' bodies with a syringe. A transmitter in the chip
then sends radio signals to a larger device carried by the client with a global positioning system in it, Xega says. A satellite can then pinpoint the
location of a person in distress.
Cristina, 28, who did not want to give her last name, was implanted along with seven other members of her family last year as a "preventive measure."
"It's not like we are wealthy people, but they'll kidnap you for a watch. ... Everyone is living in fear," she said.
The chips cost $4,000 plus an annual fee of $2,200.
Most kidnappings in Mexico go unreported, many of them cases of "express kidnapping" where the victim is grabbed and forced to withdraw money from
automatic cash machines.
GROWTH INDUSTRY
Official statistics show 751 kidnappings in Mexico last year, but the independent crime research institute ICESI says the number could have exceeded
7,000.
Xega, based in the central Mexican city of Quererato, designed global positioning systems to track stolen vehicles until a company owner was kidnapped
in broad daylight in 2001. Frustrated by his powerlessness to call for help, the company adapted the technology to track stolen people.
Most people get the chips injected into their arms between the skin and muscle where they cannot be seen. Customers who fear they are being kidnapped
press a panic button on an external device to alert Xega, which then calls the police.
"Before, they only kidnapped key, well-known economically successful people like industrialists and landowners. Now they are kidnapping people from
the middle class," said Sergio Galvan, Xega's commercial director.
Katherine Albrecht, a U.S. consumer privacy activist, says the chip is a flashy, overpriced gadget that only identifies a person and cannot locate
someone without another, bigger GPS device that kidnappers can easily find and destroy.
She said fear of kidnapping was driving well-off Mexicans to buy a technology that had yet to prove useful.
"They are a prime target because they've got money and they've got a worry and you can combine those two and offer them a false sense of security
which is exactly what this is," she said.
President Felipe Calderon has come under heavy pressure to stamp out violent crime. He hosted a meeting on Thursday of security chiefs and state
governors.
Outside of Mexico, U.S. company VeriChip Corp (CHIP.O) uses similar radio-wave technology to identify patients in critical condition at hospitals or
find elderly people who wander away from their homes.
Xega sees kidnapping as a growth industry and is planning to expand its services next year to Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior
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palmeto99
Banned
Posts: 292
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Location: loreto,BCS and East Coast USA (Spartanburg, SC)
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Ron,
Be prepared for the attack upon your person for posting such negative info.
Did you not get the memo, long term members are staying away in droves because this style of posting has upset them so.
Please post a picture of a dog playing in the Baja surf instead so we can keep our members.
The advice I am about to give you is worth what you are paying for it.
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
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Location: The Valley of the Moon
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| Quote: | Originally posted by palmeto99
Ron,
Be prepared for the attack upon your person for posting such negative info.
Did you not get the memo, long term members are staying away in droves because this style of posting has upset them so.
Please post a picture of a dog playing in the Baja surf instead so we can keep our members. |
I know, the PC types have really been feeling their oats
Fortunately or unfortunately I actually live in Baja California Sur ..... and it's not all chips and salsa
You must remember, I live in a one cartel town ... so I can't say much more.
CaboRon
[Edited on 8-22-2008 by CaboRon]
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Udo
Elite Nomad
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Mood: TEQUILA!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by CaboRon
| Quote: | Originally posted by palmeto99
Ron,
Be prepared for the attack upon your person for posting such negative info.
Did you not get the memo, long term members are staying away in droves because this style of posting has upset them so.
Please post a picture of a dog playing in the Baja surf instead so we can keep our members. |
I know, the PC types have really been feeling their oats
Fortunately or unfortunately I actually live in Baja California Sur ..... and it's not all chips and salsa
| Quote: |
You must remember, I live in a one cartel town ... so I can't say much more.
CaboRon |
One cartel sound fine with me, Ron
Just remember...their freedom of speech is not what you and I think it is  
[Edited on 8-22-2008 by CaboRon] |
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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rpleger
Super Nomad
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Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
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When the price comes down a little I'll have to sign up...I get lost going out for a Corona...
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
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BajaWarrior
Super Nomad
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Location: Mission Bay, San Diego. Playa Hermosa, San Felipe.
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Mood: Anxious to get south
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| Quote: | Originally posted by palmeto99
Ron,
Be prepared for the attack upon your person for posting such negative info.
Did you not get the memo, long term members are staying away in droves because this style of posting has upset them so.
Please post a picture of a dog playing in the Baja surf instead so we can keep our members. |
Ron, you can borrow mine...
Haven't had a bad trip yet....
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gnukid
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4411
Registered: 7-2-2006
Member Is Offline
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Loba la bonita
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palmeto99
Banned
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Registered: 7-15-2008
Location: loreto,BCS and East Coast USA (Spartanburg, SC)
Member Is Offline
Mood: Trying to bring the worlds people together one post at a time.
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That is a good looking dog.Looks smart as well.
The advice I am about to give you is worth what you are paying for it.
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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
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Lobo hermoso
Wanna play!!!
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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