The Rising Threat of Kidnapping in Latin America
In November of 2004, Robinho was reported to be on the verge of moving from Brazilian team Santos to Real Madrid. The transfer fees being discussed in the media were about $23 million. Robinho’s contract at Real Madrid would make the boy who had grown up in desperate poverty into a rich young man. Robinho had only one thing on his mind. And then, his mother was kidnapped.
Mariana Lima de Souza was reportedly visiting friends in the poor neighborhood where she brought up her son. A group of armed criminals hopped the fence of the house she was visiting, grabbed her, and took her away. Mrs. de Souza was held for 41 days until Robinho paid a reported $75,000 ransom.
Robinho with his mother
The kidnapping of Robinho’s mother got worldwide attention because of his status as one of Brazil’s brightest future stars. But he is far from the only soccer player to be affected by kidnapping.
Grafite, then playing for Sao Paulo, had his mother kidnapped soon after the abduction of Robinho’s mother. Rogerio was playing for Porto that same year, but his mother was at home in the Brazilian city of Campinas when she was kidnapped. Current Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano’s mother suffered the same fate soon after. It was the fifth kidnapping of a Brazilian soccer player’s mother in a five-month span in 2005.
Kidnappings of soccer players’ family members are not limited to Brazil, nor are they limited to mothers. Juan Román Riquelme’s brother Cristian was kidnapped in 2003 and held for just over 24 hours before the family paid a ransom.
The father of Jorge Campos, the former Mexican goalkeeper best known for his brightly-colored shirts, was taken at gunpoint in 1999. He was held for just over a week before being released in exchange for cash.
Jorge Campos (L) and his father Alvaro Campos
Mexico can also claim the dubious distinction of having had a working coach kidnapped. Ruben Omar Romano was manager of Cruz Azul in 2005 when he was abducted. He was held for two months before being freed by Mexican police.
These are, sadly, far from the only examples of soccer players’ family members being kidnapped. In Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and other Latin American countries, risk of abduction is the price of fame. Musicians, movie stars, and other wealthy and well-known people fear for their own safety and that of their families. It is only relatively recently that soccer players and their families were considered at risk.
1994 marked a turning point in the abduction of a member of a soccer player’s family. That was when Brazilian striker Romario’s father was taken by a group of criminals. The kidnappers were also soccer fans (not surprising since they were Brazilian) and “provided him with steak, beer, cigarettes, a fan and a television so he could watch his son play.” Romario’s father was released unharmed several days later.
If the abduction of Romario’s father changed anything, it was to tell players that they and their families would no longer be given special status. In a soccer-mad hemisphere, footballers were often spared the type of extortion that other celebrities received. Criminals, it seemed, couldn’t bear to kidnap the mother of their favorite striker.
But the abduction of Romario’s father can be seen as a turning point in which criminals started to become less sentimental. It brought about a swing the pendulum away from adoration of soccer stars and toward greed. More recent abductions have been carried out with no regard for the players’ “special status.”
Celio Marcelo da Silva (also known by his nom de guerre Bin Laden), the convicted mastermind behind the kidnapping of Robinho’s mother, told the BBC that kidnappers rationalize their crimes because there is a “lack of opportunities in Brazil.” Da Silva also blamed the media for the 2005 spate of kidnappings, saying, “It all started because people copied the Robinho kidnapping… the media promoted it all. If they go around saying that there is a lot of money involved, it doesn’t matter whose mother it is… people will kidnap them.”
Convicted kindapper Celio Marcelo da Silva, aka Bin Laden
Da Silva may misguided on most matters, but he is completely correct when he says that criminals today don’t care whose mother they kidnap. Gone are the times when criminals gave special status to the soccer players they, like so many else in their countries, adored. Today, many players hire bodyguards for themselves and their families. And young players leave Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and other countries to avoid the threat of kidnapping.
Bruno Marioni, an Argentine striker playing for Toluca in Mexico, told the media last year that he’d welcome a move to MLS in order to be in a country where his family would be safe. (A transfer to Boca Juniors convinced him to sacrifice his family’s safety in favor of playing for the great Buenos Aires club.)
Robinho continued to play for another six months at Santos after his mother was kidnapped. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t mentally sharp and his play suffered as a result. Fortunately for the young Brazilian, his transfer to Real Madrid did eventually go through in the summer of 2005. He moved to Spain, where he has been ever since. His mother is there with him.
June 24th, 2007 20:01
[...] to Bayern Munich. As many others have found out, playing in Brazil can be a dangerous affair, with criminal elements eager to kidnap players’ family members for ransom. Tim Vickery writes in his BBC column that “the social problems of his country have scared his [...]
August 30th, 2007 11:56
[...] here is very quiet, the people are friendly, and his family is safe. In a country that often sees footballer’s family members kidnapped for profit, that last point is nothing to be sneezed [...]