The Art of Negotiation
Braun, Tico
On June 24, 1988 Texas oilman Jake Gambini was .kidnapped in Colombia by a group of guerrillas. For the next six months-during which time the guerril- las never revealed what political group they...
...We're talking in Colom- bian, right...
...Following are excerpts that illustrate a new institution in Colombia: the art and science of hostage negotiating...
...Gambini's employee Yes sir...
...I go up to 105 million [pesos...
...The professional hostage negotiator] keeps saying that they'll come down suddenly, out of the blue...
...He knows of a case where the family received a finger in a box through the mail...
...The insurance company would have paid everything, including ransom payment all our expenses and even these professionals whom Jake Gambini's wife] is pay- ing, [but] Jake had conclued that the insurance policy was too expensive, somethin like $100,000 per person er ear...
...Jake figured he'd ave to pay the guerrillas less for the ransom...
...Guerrilla: Well look, we are going to go down to 2.8 million [dollars...
...By the time G ambini was kidnapped, guerrilla abductions of well-heeled Colom- bians and foreigners were so endemic that maneuver- ing for a captive's release had become as common- place and stylized as the give-and-take that occurs when one buys or sells a house or house or a high-end used car...
...July 4 Braun: Almost everybody we talk to wants to know whether Jake has kidnapping insurance, No we answer...
...June 26 Tico Braun: Through the oil companies in Bogota [Gaim- bini's wife] has learned about organizations that make a living out of negotiating with guerrillas and terrorists...
...It turns out that families apparently end u paying around 10% of the guerrillas' initial demand...
...nce a sum is settled on and the guerrillas have their money, they return the per- son...
...Our new petition is three million dollars...
...It's a good thing that the Colombian government doesn't get much involved...
...This is a kidnapping," he said...
...The cuernlas will ask for an astronomical sum of money, we'll make a counter offer, and so it will go...
...We had gotten him back...
...He smiled...
...hey want to close a deal...
...It wasn't luck...
...Guerrilla: "No, that's very little...
...They're located in Miami...
...The I saw all the guns an knew...
...I told you not to start so far down...
...Gambini's employee: "Eighty million pesos...
...They have to...
...September 29: Braun: A note arrives, and a Polaroid photograph of him...
...What stands ahead is predictable...
...We contin- ue to negotiate, we can't just suddenly agree to what they want...
...This was their place, and you could tell they used it a lot...
...Just a kid, not more than 20 years old...
...We're a group that has suffered a lot, and this is a struggle that we must continue...
...Hours later after the family learns that the guerrillas have freed Gambini) Braun: Boy, luck had been with us...
...Au st 2: (Afeur the second negotiating meeting Braun: The phone rings...
...June 24 Jake Gambini: I thought they were workers from a ri who were looking for me...
...They are not moving an inch [from the three mil- lion dollars...
...Braun: I'm ecstatic...
...He rifled through them like he was the most experienced bank teller in the world...
...We did everything the way we were supposed to...
...He knew exactly what he was doing...
...I feel as though we've made two mil- lion dollars...
...I'm not here to waste my time, I have my job [at Universi- ty of Virginia] to return to...
...Gambino's employee: 150...
...Nelson, the professional hostage negotiator] lets us know that we should be glad it s a picture...
...Their note insists on "the three" [million dollars...
...It's a small company...
...The guy with the beard told me that...
...We also want to solve this quickly...
...He put the bills back in the suitcase and closed it...
...For the next six months-during which time the guerril- las never revealed what political group they belonged to-Gambini's employees and his Colombian brother- in-law, Herbert "Tico" Braun, would engage in pro- tracted ransom bargaining...
...November 7: Gambini's employee: We flew to this small airport...
...And I want a quick response...
...October 20: Guerrilla: We want this to be settled at 150...
...Guerrilla: Yes...
...October 4: Braun: We try everything in today's call...
...The rules had worked...
...The kid smelled the bills...
...Five what?' "Five big ones...
...That's the way it works...
...Everything was fine...
...We understand your posi- tion and we know that this is a business...
...It's only their opening gambit...
...September 23 Braun...
...July 11 Gambini: I tried to figure out what the company was worth...
...But of those 150 we want 300, ah, 300,000 dollars and the rest in pesos...
...They need us...
...Braun: The rest was somewhere between 46 and 53 million pesos, dependinqon the exchange rate.There is no question about it...
...Don't worry," Nelson [a hired professional from the hostage-negotiator company] says, almost nonchalantly...
...August 30 Braun: They wouldn't budge from the three million [dol- lars...
...July 30 (Gambini's employee's first meeting with a guerrilla rep- resentative): Guerrilla: I have been assigned to negotiate this matter, Don't worry, this is apurely economic thing...
...That, I tell him, is as far as we can go...
...He had done this many times before...
...But the differences are not substantial...
...It's a private matter, a financial transaction...
...Quick...
...Five million dollars...
...Braun, a history professor at the University of Virginia, later wrote Our Guerrillas, Our Sidewalks (University Press of Colorado), an account of the kidnapping from the point of view of those who represented Gambini's interests during the bargaining...
...Braun: Those figures are so unreachable for us that the difference between one and other is nonexistent...
...August 13: Braun: We qo up ten million pesos, to three hundred thousand dollars...
...I let him know that we might be able to go up to 115 million [pesos...
...It takes eight calls to work out all the details...
...Nothing's gonna happen to you...
...They know they will get close to their 150 million pesos-460,000 dollars or so...
...I wrote a note authorizing [my employee] to do the negotiating...
...The leader, a bearded man told me to hurry up...
...It wasn't an airport exactly, but a pretty good runway with a hut next to it...
...Five," he says...
...It is ake Gambini's employee...
...Please keep in min mind that the compa- ny is not a multinational, as the newspapers reported...
...August 4: (Third negotiating meeting) Guerrilla: What are your people offering...
...This has to be kept within the family...
...He opened the zipper...
...July 3 Braun: We are beginning to learn about the clearly defined steps and stages that families go through...
...I carried the suitcase...
...One of them came up to me...
...They said they usually took 50% of a family's Maneuvering for a captive's release has become as commonplace as buying or selling a house or a high-end used car...
...Verdes...
...net worth...
...Greenbacks...
Vol. 34 • September 2000 • No. 2
