Captive

The act of crime, it has two sides.

It has the victim's side and the criminal's side.

The majority of people know that if you pursue a life of crime,

your life will be interrupted by either prison...

or death.

It was a game.

And I was prepared to play that game.

In my case, I believed...

that something would be different...

something good would happen.

We live in a state of war.

Social war.

Between the "haves" and the "have-nots," those who can and those who can't.

The difference in classes, not only in Rio de Janeiro,

but in Brazil...

is very large.

It is unequal and inhuman.

I lived as a young person who was a "have-not."

My thinking was that they have it and I want it.

If I'm prepared to pay for what I'm going to do,

I only have to take it.

At the end of the '80s and beginning of the '90s,

kidnapping came into fashion in Rio de Janeiro.

In Rio, a historic and dramatic record,

this year alone, there have already been 150 kidnappings.

There have been 15 kidnappings in July alone,

one after the other.

Within the kidnapping network,

I was perhaps one of the most highly regarded

and respected people in Rio.

There were kidnappings of important people,

of important businesspeople.

And quite a considerable sum of money, of resources,

was taken from them.

In all the crimes I undertook, in drug trafficking...

in kidnapping, in theft,

I felt like I was...

very good.

I was the CEO of our family business, the Coca-Cola business.

My father started that in 1944 here in Brazil.

I was born here in Brazil, although my parents were American.

I lived in a high-rise apartment building,

and I had a maid

and a driver

and could afford to have my children study at a private school.

So, I had a wonderful life.

When Corinne's name was mentioned

as a potential victim for a kidnapping...

let's put it this way, we would be rich.

I followed Corinne for approximately 90 to 100 days, three months.

I started to map out all of Corinne's personal life.

Her family, who the people closest to her were.

This makes the person a little more vulnerable.

I waited in the doorway

of her apartment building in Lagoa...

trying to obtain and confirm as much information as possible.

Doormen normally have a lot of information to give.

You have access to all the information, the schedules of all the residents.

Doormen...

In the morning, my driver would take me over to our main office,

which was in one of our factories in Niterai,

which is across the bay from Rio.

I monitored parts of Corinne's route.

She always used the same roads, the same route,

with no variation.

This was the final stretch of the location...

where we would intercept Corinne Coffin's car.

This was the ideal place.

We would have visibility throughout the operation,

on both sides of the road, left and right.

It was the perfect location for an ambush.

I was just sitting, relaxing in the back seat...

when suddenly, two cars came out of nowhere...

and cut us off.

My first impression was, "My God, these people don't know how to drive!"

But that didn't last very long

because all these armed men jumped out of the car.

Up until that point, I had never heard a gunshot.

I'd never had a gun pointed at my face.

This particular one with the hood on

was yelling, you know, "Open the door! Open the door!"

I thought they were just going to take my purse or the car.

This voice said,

"Dona Corinne, please get out of the car."

The realization started to sink in.

It was not a random hold-up or carjacking.

I'm being kidnapped.

One guy yelled at me, "Stay there. Lie down. Don't look around."

In the moment that you come across the helpless victim,

there is no feeling.

There's just a mission, a job that needs to be executed.

The initial shock was beginning to wear off.

And that's when the fear starts to come in.

The fear...

is far beyond fear.

It was pure terror.

Once ambushed and subdued...

the main thing is to get the victim into the hideout as quickly as possible.

The safety of the whole operation and the team depends on this,

as well as the victim's own life.

The military life I lived for ten years, undoubtedly,

was a great school for this.

I was part of an elite squad,

and I was considered to be very good in this squad.

And so throughout all of the crimes that I committed,

my military training was fundamental.

The fear, the uncertainty,

the "Oh, my God, what is going to happen to me?"

I was just thinking, "Why did I not tell my husband I loved him this morning?

Why did I not...

hug my kids one more time?"

And thinking about how maybe I would never be given that chance again.

I met a friend for a drink at a bar in Leblon...

and I said, "I'm going to call the house."

My secretary answered...

and said, "Ms. Corinne isn't home yet."

So I started to think it was strange that she wasn't home yet.

I ended up going home.

Roughly around 11 p.m.,

I was starting to worry,

very worried actually,

as we had a very precise routine, and neither her driver nor she showed up.

When I answered, I realized it wasn't her, but a man speaking.

I will never forget his voice.

We are with Corinne.

She has been kidnapped.

We are professionals.

She trusts you to do what needs to be done.

Do not go to the police and tell as few people as possible.

And he hung up.

The world collapsed in 30 seconds.

They had put in the room safety goggles.

They had put duct tape on the actual lenses in the front.

Goggles!

I was very careful not to see who they were.

I felt that it would just condemn me to death.

And I heard this voice. This man said...

"My name is Lucio.

This is a kidnapping."

I outlined our proposal,

that the intention was money,

and that if everything went to plan,

she would be returning home as soon as possible.

In his voice, there was a certain amount of contempt

and a certain pride to be in that position

of having someone of my class under his power.

Lucio said to me...

"We're going to ask for $10 million."

I froze.

I don't have that kind of money.

I didn't understand it.

That night, I didn't sleep at all waiting for the call.

You're stuck. You don't hear anything, noise, nothing.

You are just lost there waiting for the call.

I remember calling a few friends.

You're negotiating somebody's life, and it's not easy,

so you need help.

When I found out that she had been kidnapped,

I, like all the other company directors, became really desperate.

I was very close to Corinne,

and so I was very close to Carlos and their sons.

She was like a mother figure to everyone.

The next day the real negotiations began.

The first demand was $20 million.

It was a mixture of panic, powerlessness, fear, anger,

because there wasn't the slightest possibility

that I could get together $20 million to pay for Corinne's life.

And I said,

"We don't have that kind of money. There's no chance."

And then he hung up.

Lucio. Lucio.

We knew that it wouldn't be easy to free Corinne,

at least not at the speed and urgency we wanted.

I would have paid the money right away if I'd had it.

I was willing to do anything.

One way or another, if they didn't pay, she would pay with her life.

We knew the kidnapper had said not to call the police,

but we did not hesitate to call them,

because you need the police's help in a kidnapping situation.

It doesn't matter whether it is a millionaire or a modest person,

the procedure is the same.

At the time,

we sometimes had to work on five kidnappings in one day alone.

They would kidnap supermarket

and transport company owners more often...

because of their easy access to cash,

real cash, real money.

In Corinne's case, it was different,

because in the kidnapper's mind, she represented an empire,

Coca-Cola.

You have to go back to that period and to what Coca-Cola represented.

Nowadays they have a lot of competition,

but at the time Coca-Cola was everything.

When I arrived at the apartment, Corinne's family was very worried.

There were some company directors, everyone, a complete commotion.

Just as in any other kidnap, the family was desperate.

We managed to set up a headquarters there

to work specifically on Corinne's case,

with the family's permission.

The only technology we had at the time was we would get a phone call,