76-13-B7
- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1977
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Bill Niehouse[edit]
Transcript[edit]On February 27, 1976, William Niehouse was abducted from his home in Caracas, Venezuela by "leftist guerillas." He was an employee of an American firm doing business in Venezuela -- Owens-Illinois Company. He was not engaged in any kind of James Bond adventures. He worked for Owens-Illinois and lived in Caracas with his family. He is the victim of a crime. The ransom demands came. First, there must be the publication of a leftist manifesto in the New York TIMES, London TIMES, Paris LE MONDE and Venezuelan EL NACIONAL. Owens-Illinois complied with the demand and the manifesto appeared in all but the Venezuelan paper. The government of Venezuela refused to allow it to be printed in that country. The next demand called for $114.00 to be paid to each employee of Owens-Illinois in Venezuela. Owens-Illinois complied. At that point the Venezuelan government announced the company had broken the laws of the country and for so doing, must sell its possessions to the government. While not totally expropriating the American company, it was about as close as you could get. As of two months ago, the business negotiations were at a standstill. Demand Number Three arrived. It called for an outright payment of ransom. The Venezuelan government refused to permit any such payment, but also refused to allow anyone to say it wasn't permitted. Mrs. Niehouse had naturally become of interest to the news media in Caracas. But, with this third demand, her interviews were cut if any reference to ransom was made or asked about. One television station was closed by the government, and a newspaper taken over. Donna Niehouse stayed in Venezuela for six months. She was under constant surveillance. Her house was bugged and her phone tapped. Two policemen lived in the house as part of the surveillance -- not as a measure of protection for her. During the period when the messages were coming from the kidnappers, letters came from her husband assuring her he was alive and well. Then in July, an attempt to make a token payment to the kidnappers was aborted by the Venezuelan police. Nothing has been heard from the kidnappers or the police since that time. The police continue to make arrests and the government has announced that everyone involved has been arrested, and the case is solved. But where is Bill Niehouse? There is only this post script -- Donna Hiehouse was recently called to Venezuela to see if she could identify any of the persons under arrest. She positively identified one suspect and apparently his fingerprints prove he was present at the kidnapping. But they have been unable to get any information from him -- possibly because he is held as a political prisoner, and in Venezuela, political prisoners usually walk away free. Mrs. Niehouse, and literally hundreds of friends, have written to the State Department and the White House. Each has received a form letter reply, -- QUOTE -- "We are doing everything we can. We must allow the Venezuelan government to handle it." --UNQUOTE. I still say a government has no reason to exist unless it is willing to pledge its total resources to help even one citizen, wherever he may be in the world, if that citizen's Constitutional right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being unjustly denied. |
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