Voiceover : Caracas, Venezuela – and Rodrigo Herrera is preparing his team for a raid.

Rodrigo Herrera (Dr. Diablo) : I must have been from another planet to come up with this idea.

Voiceover : The 51 year old lawyer turned businessman, has turned Satan into a tool for one of Venezuela’s more lucrative businesses – debt collecting.

Rodrigo Herrera (Dr. Diablo) : There’s no law that prohibits me dressing up as a devil.

Voiceover : He’s redecorated a Caracas office, hired forty people including fourteen lawyers, and now reassures clients he can prize money away from people who hate paying.

Dario Alvarez (Caracas Architect) : What worries me is that he might not be in his office.

Rodrigo : Don’t worry about it brother.

Voicover : Caracas Architect Dario Alvarez claims he’s owed two hundred thousand dollars by a slow paying hotelier.

Dario : These people, they just don’t want to pay, so I’ve got to throw them in hell – directly. Here in Venezuela, justice is always slow. It’s like a snail. Ah, it don’t function.

Voiceover : So Dario has hired debt collecting’s heavy hitters. He’s agreed to pay up to one third of any money recovered - to the agency Venezuelans know as ‘Dr. Diablo’ – Spanish for ‘The Devil’.

Dario Alvarez (Caracas Architect) : It’s more efficient than the local justice, because ah people have shame. He attacks the shame of the people.

Voiceover : Rodrigo Herrera embarrasses them into paying up – with his debt commandos - a Devil, a thumping Rottweiler and some attention-grabbing assistants.

Rodrigo Herrera (Dr. Diablo) : We send the cute little Miss devil to lower the pressure overall; to make it not as imposing.

Voiceover : The devil, the dames and the Rottweiler ride in Diablo’s hot rod hell mobile, that’s if the Dog lets the devil in. Today he doesn’t, so the Master of Darkness has to ride on the side. The trio blaze through Caracas past billboards advertising their business, attracting as much attention as they can. Then they turn the glare in on their debt defaulting prey – a moment almost too delicious for an aggrieved creditor.

Dario Alvarez (Caracas Architect) : I feel so good. It’s a wild experience, OK, but I feel so good. I suppose it’s the only way to take our money.

Voiceover : In fact Dario has to wait. Business in the shame game is so good, Dr. Diablo has another accused debt defaulter to embarrass on his way.

Rodrigo Herrera (Dr. Diablo) : We’ll show up as a group of ten or twelve, and most of the time people will just retreat and not even open the door, or they meet the secretary and pay the very next day.

Voiceover: Used to dealing with quiet coffee drinkers...

Cafe Owner : Please. You understand. You understand. Leave.

Voiceover: ...Caracas Café owner Oscar Perroni is hit with the circus from hell...

Cafe Owner : Do you have the telephone number for the police?

Voiceover : ...and he’s not happy, though Diablo’s lawyer says he has no excuses.

Cafe Owner : Leave. Please leave. Leave.

Dr. Diablo Lawyer on site : He’s already been notified three times. I’ve been to his office on various occasions.

Oscar Perroni (Café Co-owner) : It’s a debt of my associate, and that’s the truth.

Voiceover : Having faced the devil, Oscar insists God is on his side.

Oscar Perroni (Café Co-owner) : I think I am spiritually at a different level than those people.

Voiceover : Rodrigo Herrera is adamant there’s no threat of violence. The dog’s most dangerous asset is his breath.

Rodrigo Herrera (Dr. Diablo) : We have a rate of about ninety percent effectiveness.

Voiceover : That’s because he rejects hopeless cases. The devil goes only where the embarrassment will be excruciating.

Oscar Perroni (Café Co-owner) : I understand their intention is to humiliate.

Luis Vicente Leõn (Caracas Analyst) : Not only embarrassing - It is very dangerous for their business.

Voiceover : Venezuelan pollster and analyst Luis Vicente Leõn believes Dr. Diablo works partly because here, shame is death for a business.

Luis Vicente Leõn (Caracas Analyst) : They have to pay very quickly because if the rest of the people realise that you are not paying, maybe they are not going to buy things or sell things to you.

Voiceover : He also believes Venezuelans – especially the eighty percent in poverty - are notoriously debt prone, spending on luxuries like satellite TV.

Luis Vicente Leõn (Caracas Analyst) : They have to y’know to present to their neighbourhood that they can buy direct TV or satellite TV or these kinds of things because … Status … exactly.

Rodrigo Herrera (Dr. Diablo) : Unfortunately, I don’t know what’s happened here in Venezuela, because Venezuelans are good, but they’re also good at cheating and dodging bills. Here, people change sex rather than pay their bills (laugh).

Reporter : Are you a little bit nervous now?

Dario Alvarez (Caracas Architect) : A little bit nervous yes, because we are going to confront that person, and we are going to confront that person in front of the devil.

Reporter : Good luck.

Dario Alvarez : Thank you.

Voiceover : At his debtor’s business, Dario would normally be a nobody, but thanks to his pact with the devil, everyone’s paying attention, and the mood is against the boss.

Off camera yelling from crowd : Pay, pay.

Dario Alvarez (Caracas Architect) : He said that the manager is not here; not at this place. So what can you do now Dario? I wait. I wait.

Reporter : Is Dr. Diablo good?

Vox Pop Interviewee 1 : Well of course, of course, because people have to pay.

Vox Pop Interviewee 2 : Yeah, we know Dr. Diablo. I’m going to hire him to charge this guy (laugh)

Dario Alvarez (Caracas Architect) : He’s hiding. He’s hiding. He’s hide. He’s here, but he hide.

Voiceover : Cornered in his own business, his dignity kneecapped, the debtor must choose; pay - or face the devil’s publicity arm.

Rodrigo Herrera (Dr. Diablo) : We have just left them a citation for Friday and if they are not present that day, unfortunately we’re going to have to move to publication in the national press.

Unthinkable humiliation. Elsewhere in the world, the debtor would get the devil for defamation. Here, slander just smokes ‘em out. Mind you, Dr. Diablo is looking abroad for other markets where shame is untapped as a means of dealing with debt. As for Dario, his debtor has proved unusually shameless. Dr. Diablo has since mounted two more humiliation missions against the man. He’s yet to pay, though hell has forced him into negotiations.