JOURNALIST:

MYSTERY KIDNAPPING OF MEXICAN MILLIONAIRE FROM OUR LATIN AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT In a daring lightning attack yesterday afternoon, 58-year-old industrialist and factory owner Carlos Ramirez, one of Mexico's richest men, was kidnapped from his own luxury 17th-floor office in Mexico City. The whole operation only lasted about 30 seconds, according to top computer executive and close friend of the family Marco Benini, 28, who was the only person present, apart from Mr Ramirez' personal assistant:

"The elevator door suddenly opened, and these four crazy women jumped out, shouting political slogans and shooting all over the place. I tried to defend Mr Ramirez by putting myself between him and them, but they pushed me out of the way, threatening to kill me if I spoke to the Press about what I had seen."

This morning Mr Ramirez's heart-broken family were trying to work out who might have been behind this dreadful crime. And while Ramirez's daughter Juanita was on her way to Mexico to be with her mother, a colleague from our Washdon office interviewed the missing man's American son-in-law David Peters, 31, a leading linguist and translator. How much would his relatives be prepared to pay for Ramirez's safe return?

“I simply can't believe it's happened; he was like a father to me. I'd gladly sell every single thing I own to know that he was safe; at a time like this who cares about money?” At this stage we can only guess at the identity of those responsible; Ramirez had a long-standing disagreement with the trade unions about the toilet arrangements at his factories. Mexican police are also investigating a possible connection with last year's kidnapping of West German industrialist Werner Lembach, by a similar all-woman terrorist group. By the way, no demand for the payment of money has so far been received, either by his relatives or by the police.