Argentina pledges to stem abductions

BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The Argentine government has vowed to stem a wave of horrific kidnappings involving gruesome ransom demands backed by body parts, a report said Thursday.

"We have to crack down and quickly end" the kidnappings, Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez said.

He expressed concern for Pablo Belluscio, 22, who has been held for 36 days, the EFE news agency reported. Belluscio's father published an open letter Wednesday seeking help to free the youth from his "sadistic captors." The man's abductors cut two joints off his right index finger and sent them to his family "along with indescribable and explicit videos" and their demand for a $300,000 ransom, Gustavo Belluscio said.

"Already, there have been around 40 such cases in less than two months, and the number keeps going up. It's a horror for a family to see itself forced to pay the mutilating executioners of their own son," the father said.

Fernandez acknowledged "the social unrest which gives rise to these sorts of episodes is enormous" and that "actual businesses have been set up for just this sort of crime."