Venezuela - Costa Rican Diplomat Kidnapped - NYTimes.com Kidnappers have seized a Costa Rican diplomat in the latest high-profile abduction in crime-plagued Venezuela, officials of both countries said Monday. The diplomat, Guillermo Cholele, an attaché at the Costa Rican Embassy in Caracas, was kidnapped on Sunday night, Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry said. "A telephone call to the diplomat's home mentioned a ransom request and added that he was in a good state of health," the ministry said in a statement. Abductions are rife in Venezuela. The most common are "express kidnappings," short and carried out purely for money.