Kidnap and Rescue in Ecuador

I’ve written in the past about the security issues that still plague Ecuador, and I’ve also mentioned that I still get email updates from the U.S. Embassy from time to time. The email updates, which no longer apply to me as a resident, still affect me as a person concerned with the region. I have friends there, and I’d like to go back some day. Previously, I’d written about a man being killed in an ambush on the way to the bank with $44,000 US Dollars on him.

Today I got this email:

The U.S. Embassy in Quito and Consulate General in Guayaquil wish to
remind American citizens visiting or resident in Ecuador of the need to
be vigilant about their personal security in light of the October 17
kidnapping for ransom of an American citizen traveling in the northern
province of Carchi. While the victim was rescued and one of the
kidnappers was arrested, American citizens are reminded to maintain good
overseas security practices in their day-to-day activities and to be
vigilant at all times.

Well, at least it all ended well. The Embassy goes on to list ways in which you can try to stay out of trouble.

• Maintain a habitual state of alertness.
• Keep a low personal profile by not doing anything that draws
  attention to you.
• Become familiar with your surroundings - it will become
  easier to identify suspicious or out of place people and items.
• Check the interior and exterior of your vehicle prior to
  getting into your vehicle.
• Check the street near your residence before you go out each
  day.
• Remember, people are generally most vulnerable in the morning
  when departing for work.
• Vary your times and routes to and from work.
• Tell your household staff and family members to note
  descriptions and license numbers of suspicious vehicles seen near your
  residence.
• Your colleagues and family should be aware of your daily
  plans and how to reach you.
• Keep emergency numbers readily available; provide your family
  with emergency numbers.
• If possible, limit the amount of personal information that
  you share with doormen, maids, vendors, temporary workers, etc.
• If possible, limit the amount of access to your residence
  that you provide to doormen, vendors, temporary workers, etc.

These are just some of the ways in which you can keep yourself safe, but again, there are always other measures you can take. Change your route frequently, avoid flashing excessive wealth, etc. And maybe one day these events will stop popping up in my Inbox.

Stay Off the Road at Night

I've warned as many people as I can about the dangers of taking a night bus in Ecuador. Still, some people continue to choose to take them, and it's their choice. As I've said before, you can ride a night bus 100 times and never have any trouble, but if one time something goes wrong, you'll be wishing you hadn't. Not only can you be robbed or temporarily hijacked at night, but the drivers can fall asleep and the buses can roll off a cliff (which happened to another volunteer in my program.) And though I'd warned one of my closest friends here, Jamie about what happened on my bus back in September, last Friday night she was on a bus from Cuenca to Quito that got hijacked.

The coast is definitely considered more dangerous, but these things can still happen in the sierra. I still haven't even heard from her because her cell phones were stolen, but I've heard about what happened through other friends who saw her in Quito after it happened. The circumstances are similar to what happened to my friends and I in September, which I wrote about in a blog. I also wrote about what to do in a situation like this in an article with the Matador Network.

Basically, she was taking the bus up to Quito and three men with guns got on the bus, robbed everyone, and left them in a field. This time around, however, they actually fired the guns in the bus. But Jamie was fortunate too because she was able to hide money in her shirt and it wasn't discovered. She was traveling by herself, and I can't imagine what that must have been like all alone. I'd seen her just before she left that night, and though she left later in the afternoon, her plan was to spend the night in a town a couple of hours away, and I still don't know what happened to the original plan. If she'd told me she was going straight to Quito I'd have told her not to.

Being on both sides of this kind of incident now, I have a better appreciation for it. As a victim in something like a bus hijacking, you are the sole focus. You are there when it happens and when it's over, you are alone with your thoughts until other people start to hear about it. But the worst of it is behind you, and even though you might have some emotional things to deal with after, the guns can't touch you later on. As a friend though, I find myself just feeling awful about it, and it's a feeling that is lingering. Knowing exactly what it's like, I hate that she had to go through that. And I hate that there's nothing I can do, at least right now, while I'm still out of contact with her. It's the kind of feeling that tells you you really care for someone, and not being able to see them immediately only makes it worse. This is the kind of pain my family and friends must have been going through back home when it happened to me.

Jamie actually has a family here, and she was on her way to Quito to pick up her little sister who will be visiting for a month. So she'll have support that I didn't have. Also, she's been here almost 7 months and knows a lot of people in the community, as well as more about the culture and society. In my case, I'd just arrived in the country and other than the volunteers in my program at orientation, didn't really know anyone. So I'm hopeful that she'll be able to move on from this pretty quickly. And as bad as it sounds, she knew from my experience what it was like and what to expect, so she probably didn't have the same thoughts I'd had. Thoughts of whether or not we were being kidnapped by rebels or would we be killed, etc. The kind of thoughts that enter your head when your world's just been rocked.

So again, I can't stress this enough. Do not take the night buses in the country. It's just not worth it. You might have to kill a day traveling once in a while, or spend a little extra and fly, but at the end of the day you arrive in one piece with all of your things, and you don't have to have a story to scare people. And I just hope that my friend can feel the same way too.