Although the official figures of the number of kidnapped decreased this year - what the government attributes to the policy of "democratic safety" of president Uribe - Colombia continues to hold the sad world record in this field.

According to the Minister for Defense, Jorge Alberto Uribe, 588 people were private freedom between January and October of this year. The number of victims decreased by  55.8 percent, if one compares it with the 1.329 cases listed for the same period in 2003 (according to data's of the Funds National for the Defense of Personal Freedom (Fondelibertad), organization related to the ministry for Defense).

Hpwever, one must understand that many people kidnapped into 2004 were released against ransom, that others were released and that many cases of sequestration were never declared.

According to the spokesman of Fondelibertad, Colombia occupies the first place on a world level (75.80 percent of kidnappings in the world occur in this country).