Are you in the market for a bullet-proof Cadillac? Would you like to be able to withstand an ambush in style? Well, if you move now -- you may be able to get that stylish Cadillac on sale! It'll cost a mere $90,000, but it only comes in the color black.

Perhaps you're worried about being hit by a hitman while on a family picnic? You can have the impressive Chevrolet Suburban station wagon that is armored against handguns for $50,000! But if you have to stop an AK-47 round, you will need Level 4 protection, and that will cost you $80,000. Bodyguards and high-performance drivers for your armored vehicle are extra, of course.

According to Pete Palmer, president of Kroll-O'Gara Services in Mexico, violent crime has grown so sharply in Mexico that armored cars have become a way of life for business executives who can afford them.

Palmer said, "It's growing like crazy because this is one of the few countries in the world where there is a perception of a threat and where you have enough people who are well enough heeled to pay that kind of money."

Palmer says his company -- an arm of the U.S. firm that has been protecting presidents since 1942 -- is armoring more than 20 cars a month, up from three or four just two years ago. And O'Gara is by no means alone. About 20 other Mexican companies offer armoring services, advertising in news- papers and on huge billboards throughout the Mexico City. Then there is the General Motors dealer in Mexico City's upscale Lomas de Chapultepec district. He sells an armored Cadillac for nearly $90,000 compared to about $57,000 for the regular model.

General Motors dealer Enrique Espinosa said, "It's a very special clientele that we have maintained, selling about five cars last year."

Palmer says that O'Gara's clients are mostly Mexican businessmen, although a few executives of multinational firms have been inquiring about the armored vehicles.

A small number of high-profile cases demonstrate the risks for foreigners doing business in Mexico. In 1996, a Japanese Sanyo executive was kidnapped in the northern border city of Tijuana. Last year, a U.S. businessman was abducted from a luxury hotel that he manages in the Pacific resort of Acapulco and a U.S. real estate broker was shot and killed while being robbed in a taxi.

Top businessmen living in Mexico say the cases that make headlines are the tip of a large and sinister iceberg. Dozens of cases of kidnappings of Mexican executives go unreported because companies want to pay the ransoms discreetly.

This has generated business for companies like Kroll-O'Gara. Palmer is a 28-year veteran of the U.S. foreign service who learned about terrorism from leftist guerrillas in several Latin American capitals where he has been posted. His firm offers security consulting, courses on high- performance driving and, of course, armor.

But Palmer insists the greatest weapon against crime is common sense.

He said, "We have 3,000-odd people in the kidnap-for-ransom data base since 1993. They all saw surveillance. Every one of them. They all saw people who had been following them in the days and weeks prior to this happening and just blew it off."

Palmer added, "In the last 12 months we've trained well over 600 people, and I think it's probably the only group of 600 people you could put together in Mexico where nobody has been affected by crime ... I mean, it's that easy."

It wasn't long ago that few Mexicans except the president traveled with security guards. Now they are a fixture for a growing number of executives. Known in Spanish as "guaruras" -- loosely translated as goons -- the bulky men in undersized suit coats and mirrored glasses are often former police officers. They are popular with the Mexican elite.

A sign at one upscale cinema at a shopping mall reminds patrons that bodyguards must have their own tickets. At the Edron International school in southwestern Mexico City, parents received a circular warning that bodyguards were banned from entering school grounds when dropping off the kids.

Many foreign executives pass on bodyguards and armor in favor of a smart, highly trained driver.

Jorge Pinon, director general of Mexico operations for U.S. oil giant Amoco, recalled a recent private dinner party where security became a hot topic of conversation. He said, "The ten people at the table all represent Fortune 500 companies. None of us have armored vehicles. We do not have guaruras. But something that all of us had in common, all ten of us, is a highly trained driver."

For years Mexico did lag behind its Latin American neighbors in violent crime. A few decades ago, many thought of Mexico City as a quaint city in a valley. Now it is home to nearly 20 million people. Those idyllic days are gone.

(c) Copyright, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1998. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited by law.

The ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT is a subscription publication of the EmergencyNet NEWS Service, which is a part of the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute. This publication specializes in Security/Terrorism/ Intelligence/Military and National Security issues.

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