U.S. VICE-CONSUL KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00149647
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: September 12, 2023
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2023
• Case Number: F-2021-01570
• Publication Date: March 27, 1974

No/oreign Dissent
Dissem Abroad
controlled Dimem
pproved for Release: 2023/05/11 C00149647
pproved for Release: 2023/05/11 C00149647
No Foreign s
DAs&elffrrekr. Di�ern Abtood/Controlled Disem
U.S. Vice-Consul Kidnapped in Mexico
John Patterson, the U.S. Vice-Consul in Uermosillo,
Mexico was kidnapped on 22 March, allegedly by members of the
hitherto unknown Peoples' Liberation Army of Mexico. Patter-
son was last seen leaving the consulate that morning, presum-
ably en route to an 11 a.m. meeting with Mexican officials.
The appointment was never kept and when the consulate reopened
after lunch a ransom note was discovered. Written by Patter-
son, the note demanded the payment of $500,000 to be made in
two equal installments. One payment was to be made in Noga-
les, Mexico the morning of 24 March, the second in Mexico
City later that day. The kidnappers also demanded th:t no
news release of the kidnapping be issued and threatened
that if they were betrayed or if a member of the Peoples'
Liberation Army was detained, the kidnappers were prepared
to murder a U.S. official or a member of a U.S. official's
family each week until those detained were released and a(b)(1)
lowed to leave Mexico unharmed. (b)(3)
Arrangements were made to meet the kidnappers' demand;
however, no contact was made by the kidnappers at either No-
gales or Mexico City at the appointed times.
believe that the kidnappers
may be American ratner man Mexican. They base their conclu-
sion on several factors, including the wording of the ransom
note and the title of the ostensible revolutionary organiza-
tion, both of which they say are not in keeping with Mexican
leftist terminology. The manner in which the proposed pay-
ments were to be effected--one in a border town, the other
near the Mexico City International Airport--does not fit the
modus operandi of previous Mexican terrorist kidnapping opera-
tions and suggests that the kidnappers may have considered
fleeing to the United States. Also considered suspicious
were the requirement that the ransom payments be made in dol-
lars rather than pesos and the fact that Vice-Consul Patterson
was last seen in the company of an unidentified American at
about the time of the kidnapping.
As of 26 March there has been no reported contact with
or further instructions from the kidnappers. 451E.C.D4414-49--
r
No Foreign Dissem/N ssem Abroad/Controlled Dtssem
pproved for Release: 2023/05/1
1 C00149647
2 7 MAR 1974