What was once the world’s kidnapping capital, with 3,500 abductions in 2000, is down to just 205, but not everyone thinks it’s time for the group to close its doors

When leftwing rebels abducted Héctor Angulo’s parents in 2000, he and his four brothers didn’t know where to turn. Anxious and desperate, they feared that reporting the crime to the police would only make things worse.

In whispers, Angulo confided in a friend who had also suffered a kidnapping in the family.

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That friend sent him to the País Libre Foundation. The private charity set up to help families of kidnap victims offered him guidance in dealing with his parents’ captors and their ransom demands, and psychological help to withstand the fear and uncertainty of the situation.

The Angulos’ abduction came at one of the darkest moments of Colombia’s conflict, when an average of nine people were kidnapped every day.

Drug lords kidnapped prominent Colombians to pressure politicians to stop extraditing them to the United States. Leftist guerrillas – who were responsible for the majority of abductions – used kidnapping to both political and economic ends. Common criminals often abducted citizens to “sell” to rebel groups.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The last picture taken of Héctor Angulo’s parents, Gerardo and Carmenza, who were kidnapped by the Farc. Photograph: Courtesy of Hector Angulo

Some victims were held for a few weeks, others for years.

Still others – like Angulo’s parents – died in the hands of their captors.

The País Libre Foundation was created in 1992 to help victims and promote mass protests against kidnapping, eventually becoming a powerful and respected voice for victims.

But after 25 years, País Libre closed its doors this month – a symbol of how far Colombia has come from when it was known as the kidnapping capital of the world.

Last year, Colombia reported 205 kidnappings for ransom, compared with more than 3,500 in 2000.

“We have completed our mission,” said the foundation’s last director, María Consuelo Jáuregui, explaining the group’s decision to close just months after Farc rebels signed a peace deal with the government to end a 52-year conflict.

But victims who benefited from the work of the organization, like Angulo, lament País Libre’s demise.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Farc guerrillas dance during a cultural event held at their encampment in Llanos del Yari, Caqueta department, on 21 September 2016, marking the end of their 52-year war. Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

“I feel a huge hole in my life,” said Angulo, who has relied on help from País Libre since his parents’ abduction from La Calera, a small town in the mountains outside the capital, Bogotá.

“It’s as if someone pulled the crutches out from under me and all kidnap victims,” he said. Angulo’s parents, Gerardo and Carmenza, were both 68 years old when they were kidnapped by the Farc, and are believed to have died in captivity just three months after their abduction. Their bodies were never found.

Francisco Santos – who founded the group after his own eight-month kidnapping ordeal at the hands of Medellín cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar in 1990 – also expressed sadness at the end of the foundation, saying there was still work to be done.

Under the peace deal with the government, Farc rebels have promised to reveal the truth behind crimes committed by their troops, including kidnapping, under a special justice system.

The rebel group was notorious for holding soldiers and police officers hostage for years in jungle prison camps, and carried out large-scale kidnappings of civilians for ransom, stopping buses and seizing anyone they thought could be a lucrative target.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Colombian police and soldiers captured by Farc rebels press against a fence where they are being held at an encampment on 6 October 2000. Photograph: Reuters Tv/Reuters

“País Libre could have been a great support to the families of victims to confront the Farc in the special tribunal to demand to know the truth and to know where their loved ones who died while being held are buried,” said Santos, a newspaper editor who went on to become vice-president under conservative ex-president Álvaro Uribe.



Santos said the group had funding problems from the start. Kidnapping was perceived by international aid agencies as a problem of the wealthy elite that did not need outside help, according to Santos. “We were seen as a rightwing NGO made up of rich people,” he said.

But Angulo’s parents were far from that. After a lifetime of hard work his father had managed to scrape together just enough to buy a 70 square meter plot of land. The Farc apparently mistook it for a large hacienda and demanded millions in ransom, which the family did not have.

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Throughout its existence País Libre financed its activities by offering kidnapping prevention workshops to foreign companies – particularly oil firms – wanting to do business in Colombia, which subsidized the work with victims’ families that was offered free. But the end of the commodities boom and improved security have curbed the demand for the workshops.

Of the 205 abductions in 2016, more than 80% were attributed to common criminals not linked with either the Farc or the smaller ELN rebel group which has recently begun peace talks and was responsible for 1% of the abductions last year, according to police.

Santos believes País Libre should not close until there is not a single kidnapping in Colombia. “The wounds of kidnapping remain open,” he said.