Colombia: Kidnaping for More than Money

Murderous banditry bloodied Colombia's countryside for two decades until an all-out effort by the Colombian army last year finally brought a semblance of order to the backlands. Now la violencia has broken out in a more subtle form in Colombia's cities. Last week in Medellin, a city of 700,000 northwest of Bogotá, Carlos Mejia, 9, son of one of the country's richest industrialists, was kidnaped as he walked to school; the kidnapers demanded $180,000 for his safe return. That same day in Bogotá, the wife of a prominent doctor was dragged from her home by three thugs. Says Colombia's National Police Commander Bernardo Camacho Leyva: "Kidnaping threatens to become a worse menace than la violencia"

For all its horrors, la violencia was sporadic and disorganized. Colombian intelligence experts believe that most of the kidnaping is the work of Castro-Communist terrorists, who see it as a way to spread chaos and buy arms for their Army of Liberation, the guerrilla outfit that invaded the village of Simacota last January. There is certainly money in the racket. In the past year, more than $1,000,000 in ransom was collected in the 130 kidnaping cases reported to police. Much more was probably squeezed from victims too terrified to tell the law.

In Bogotá, the list of kidnapings has reached the point where the army advises wealthy Colombians to "alter your daily routine, never discuss travel plans among strangers, don't go out alone." Nervous citizens can buy guns from the army to protect themselves; many men keep submachine guns at their side when they drive to work in the morning. In some cases the Communists have used kidnaping threats in an attempt to run both foreign and Colombian industrialists out of the country. Most of the businessmen have sent their families abroad and stayed on — with body guards beside them.

At week's end, the doctor's wife was released after her husband agreed to issue a Communist-style statement denouncing the country's social inequalities. The police were luckier with Carlos Mejia. They freed him and arrested four persons, including the Mejia family's ex-chauffeur. But it was one of their few successes. In all the cases reported last year, not a single kidnaper has been brought to trial.