On April 6th, Venezuelan journalist Nairobi Pinto, who works as head of correspondents for the TV news channel Globovision, was kidnapped by masked individuals outside of her home in Caracas. Eight days later, she was found alive and well in the town of Cúa (Miranda State).
Her kidnapping was a source of concern not only for her relatives and friends, but for the Venezuelan journalistic community (under the #LiberenANairobi campaign). Many questions over who were the people responsible and the reasons behind the crime remain unanswered, as the Venezuelan Criminal Investigations Police (CICPC) couldn’t find a possible motivation behind the incident.
For example, according to Vice-President Jorge Arreaza last Friday her captors never made any sort of contact with her family nor the authorities, but today Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres said that there were communications with them after all.
Also on Friday, Rodríguez Torres said that acccording to the investigations, there were no political motives behind the kidnapping. But days before that, he actually believed the opposite and said this:
It’s curious that in the area where the kidnapping took place (Los Chaguaramos), there was a very violent barricade (street blocked by debris, used in the guarimbas). In that regard, we found it curious that some robberies were reported… …Some groups were trying to take advantage of this enviroment…”
And now Rodríguez Torres (during today’s press conference) has changed his mind again and hinted that the kidnapping could have political reasons after all:
(The case of) this journalist has a certain peculiarity… her fate involves three vital sectors of society (the media, the Catholic Church as Pinto is a coordinator of a youth-related group and as a college student), specially when we’re in a process of dialogue.”
Pinto is a close friend of Gaby Arellano, a student leader and a strong promoter of the protests. She openly accused Rodríguez Torres of being somewhat involved in the kidnapping. This weekend, she said that agents of the Venezuelan Intelligence Service (SEBIN) were near her residence, with the possible intention of detaining her.
Nairobi is apparently OK, and the authorities are still looking for her captors. Only time will tell if the many questions and doubts that surround this crime will eventually be answered, or if the mystery will remain as such.
Caracas Chronicles 
one wonders about this reason: p-o-l-i-t-i-c-a-l-d-i-s-t-r-a-c-t-i-o-n.
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Chavismo puro en accion, la dictadura malandra castro-chavista intimidando como bien lo sabem hacer los delincuentes que ocupan el poder
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I understand this is a breaking development, but has any asked Nairobi Pinto what this was all about?
But, the bottom line is professionals in law enforcement do not speculate in front the press, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”
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For what I saw of her in the press conference, she’s as baffled as everybody else.
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She’s not “baffled”… She’s muffled.
And wont say a thing, betting on that.
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The whole situation is suspicious and it might be true that she was muffled but she also had just been released from a week long kidnapping at 1am and was doing a press conference hours laters. It was insensitive when the reporters jumped at her and she should have some time to rest and get her bearings.
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When it comes to abductions in Venezuela, I am always amazed at the speed at which they are addressed when the regime has a specific interest in having them addressed, and the lack of specific information about how they were addressed.
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As with the three coup plotting air force generals, the kidnappers in this case will never be found.
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Very interesting case. First of all, she said that raptors never spoke to her. Some minutes forward, she said they had read the news to her every single day she was kidnapped. And, last but not least, she said later that they always told her about how famous she was became after kidnapping. WTF is that?
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Well if you are Venezuelan and you are reading this, you know that this kidnapping was a fake.
If you are not Venezuelan and you are reading this, let me inform you that in the current situation NOBODY escape alive any kidnapping in Venezuela. Usually they take the money and kill the hostage anyway.
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I’ve had most of my immediate family kidnapped (express type). I know first hand two people who have been kidnapped and made it back alive (both left the country after such episodes). Yes, I have also heard of people being killed despite being paid the ransom (an uncle of a friend who lives abroad)… However, I think it’s a big stretch stretch to say NOBODY makes it alive.
If the kidnapping was true, it could have been done for political reasons, for business personal reasons (she was an investigative journalist, we don’t know whom she might have “jurungado”), or random (many kidnappings are random occurrences, people who happen to be i the wrong place at the wrong time and looked “vulnerable”).
My take is that the kidnapping had so much publicity and called so much attention that she was let go, many other kidnappings go unsolved but this one was very much looked into, and if killed, kidnappers would have had the same fate as the Spears killers.
The message here is, it’s ok to do it as long as you don’t get much publicity. Nonetheless, I think you are wrong in ascertaining that not a single person, or even the majority of kidnapped people make it out alive.
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