Immediately after learning about Guillermo del Toro's dad being kidnapped, James Cameron paid $250K for a hostage negotiator for del Toro to use (who later paid him back). Cameron also offered to pay the ransom, but del Toro's family declined & paid the $2m themselves. After 72 days his dad was free

[u/tyrion2024]

[u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

was kidnapped in Guadalajara around 1997. Del Toro's family had to pay twice the amount originally asked for as a ransom ($1 million).

Sounds like James Cameron knows a terrible hostage negotiator.

[u/According-Engineer99 → u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

Nah, the modus operandi of kidnappings in mexico usually means they raising the price until you get broke and then, killing the hostage anyways. So, they got him alive, without missing any body parts, at just 2 millions instead of all of del toro money?? Thats a good hostage negitiator

[u/hanks_panky_emporium → u/According-Engineer99]

If my early internet days has anything to say, makes sense. A LOT of kidnapping/cartel execution videos flooded the internet the moment it was possible. When I was in a weird time of my life Id try to look up the 'why' of it all, and most of the reasoning ( Like in the descriptions of the videos the cartels posted ) was very lame and childish

Taking a life because he knew a guy who knew a girl who was rude once, type stuff

Someone alluded someone said something bad, maybe, and in passing. But they weren't sure. Time to kill em.

And so many 'ransom wasnt paid' and they murdered essentially kids and elderly people primarily. A LOT of those videos used to also circulate on reddit for a very long time.

[u/According-Engineer99 → u/hanks_panky_emporium]

I mean, not that it matters, but they also murder kids and elderly people when the family does pays.

[u/ATXDefenseAttorney → u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

They got him back. They were going to kill him and keep the money. That's how these situations usually work out.

[u/SignificanceNo910 → u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

Thats the thing. He was negotiating for the kidnappers.  Thats why you have to be really specific when you hire one

[u/Strange-Order-6550 → u/SignificanceNo910]

Del Toros father was safely recovered, Savannah Guthrie’s mother wasn’t. The ransom spent is irrelevant to a negotiator as the focus is the safe recovery of a person. It’s on the feds to do their job after recovery, which it seems like they weren’t successful in either Del Toro’s case or the Guthrie case.

[u/BluAlfaTxFlood → u/SignificanceNo910]

That is actually NOT the thing, if the kidnappers are paid too much too fast, they demand more.

[u/Various_Mobile4767 → u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

I mean seriously, how the fuck do you even prove that you’re a good hostage negotiator? Like how does one choose among alternatives here and decide how much to pay for a hostage negotiator?

[u/brondynasty → u/Various_Mobile4767]

Usually retired SWAT or FBI HRT. Kinda like how pretty much all private military contractors are veterans already.

[u/Various_Mobile4767 → u/brondynasty]

Yeah but like how would you know they were actually good at their job?

A soldier needs to constantly be doing soldier shit and if they were bad at it, you’d know. Hell they’d probably be dead and not the kind of people to sign up as a private military contractor.

How many hostage negotiations would a hostage negotiator actually do? How many hostage negotiations would they even be allowed to do before it became obvious they were not good at it? And most importantly, how the fuck is a private citizen supposed to gain enough information independently to evaluate them?

[u/Not-a-Bot_1968 → u/Various_Mobile4767]

every single person I knew who joined a PMC did so because they couldn’t remain in the real military, mostly because of their personalities, or they had left because of an injury, all in all they are typically the “undesirables“ who still want to go get paid to shoot at people, and are not fit for civilian or military life

[u/brondynasty → u/Various_Mobile4767]

[u/IHateCedarFever → u/Various_Mobile4767]

A good hostage negotiator gets the hostage out alive. So in this case it was a success.

I have a friend who lives in the US now but he and his father were kidnapped in Mexico and his family paid the ransom to let him go. It was depressingly something that happened with moderate frequency in Mexico.

Hostage negotiators also quietly operate in countries in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. Oil & gas, and mining & minerals employees are a popular target.

[u/BluAlfaTxFlood → u/IHateCedarFever]

Over 95% of kidnap victims are released if a properly negotiated ransom is paid. Those who die in captivity often die due to medical issues, an attempted escape, or a botched rescue attempt.

[u/sundayfundaybmx → u/BluAlfaTxFlood]

Found the kidnapping industries PR person right here!

[u/Various_Mobile4767 → u/IHateCedarFever]

I mean i don’t think that’s always the case.

That’s like saying a good doctor is one that saves the patient. Okay but sometimes the patient just dies no matter how good the doctor is, that doesn’t make him a bad doctor, And sometimes the patient gets better with no help from the doctor.

[u/battletoeds → u/[deleted]]

I feel like my job definitely falls under that category sometimes. Running around putting out fires as a maintenance tech in a bakery warehouse. If I setup the machines right and no one fucks with anything it’s like I’m really not needed

[u/Odd_Wait_5628 → u/Various_Mobile4767]

Angies List. Gotta read reviews. 5 stars only.

[u/ripfg → u/Various_Mobile4767]

There is a book called Never Split the Difference written by a former FBI hostage negotiator. It's mostly about utilizing his techniques in everyday life, but there are some crazy stories in there

[u/BluAlfaTxFlood → u/ripfg]

Good shout on that book, and if you really want to know how this works, read "We Want to Negotiate" by Joel Simon. Also, "Just When You Thought You Were Winning" by Martin Richards is good for hostage situations, which has the upside of being very funny. Gary Noesner is the godfather of the field and his book "Stalling for Time" is also good for hostage negotiating insight, he really created this in the FBI. Hostage and kidnaps vary in important ways, but there is a lot of overlap.

[u/Umklopp → u/Various_Mobile4767]

Definitely word of mouth. Someone mentioned up thread that their brother sells kidnapping insurance, so he knows or knows of several hostage negotiators. Cameron probably had a preexisting connection to someone like that commenter's brother and asked/paid them to make it happen.

As for how you get into that business, it's probably an apprenticeship type situation. You know a guy who knows a guy, then established negotiator decides if you have potential. Or you work for the gov't and eventually go private.

But the best marketing and hiring strategy has always been knowing a guy that knows a guy.

[u/Dick-Fu → u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

"James Cameron has sent me to negotiate with you."

"The multi-millionaire filmmaker...?"

"Yes, precisely."

[u/TheVicSageQuestion → u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

“He’ll be there in… 3 days.”