Abduction of William Niehous
William 'Frank Niehous' was an American executive for Owens-Illinois Inc. and alleged CIA spy who was abducted in Venezuela by the Marxist Revolutionary Group of Commands. His captivity became the longest kidnapping of a U.S. national in Latin America.
The GCR referred to the operation as "Argimiro Gabaldón". Because the group lacked the financial and logistical capacity to sustain a prolonged abduction, it initially sought support from the left-wing Red Flag group. When this cooperation proved insufficient, the GCR established further ties with the Socialist League, co-founded by Jorge Antonio Rodríguez. The subsequent arrest and killing of Rodríguez by the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services for his involvment in the kidnapping was a foundational memory for his daughter, Delcy Rodríguez, who was seven years old when her father died. The event was one of the reasons for her adopting a political career. She went on to become president of Venezuela after the successful US operation to extract Nicolás Maduro from the country.
Niehous' kidnappers demanded, as a condition of his release, a 3.5 million U.S. dollar ransom, that Owens-Illinois compensate each of its Venezuelan employees with $116 for their "exploitation", that they donated 18 thousand food packages to the poor, and that they advertised a manifesto that criticized the government and accused the company of corruption and disrupting in the nation's internal politics. The group said that Niehous was a CIA agent and announced that they intended to try him for "counter-revolutionary activities".
He was held from February 1976 until his rescue by rural police in June 1979., one of the individuals involved in the kidnapping, remained a leading figure within Red Flag as late as 2013.