Since fewer than 15 percent of deaths can be attributed to the guerrilla fighting, ending those wars and reining in the paramilitaries would still leave Colombia a very violent place, even if all the factions and fronts put down their guns. To the murders and the guerrilla war killings add the kidnappings, which in Colombia have reached industrial scale. Today the number reported each year runs into the thousands, and some estimate the unreported total to be much higher still. The fortunate ones are ransomed. The remainder are killed, or at least never reappear.
Ransoms provide a major source of revenue for the guerrillas.
Everybody with money who does not pay for protection is a target, and nearly every family of means has at least one member who has been held hostage. Criminal gangs also engage in kidnappings, as on occasion the drug traffickers themselves have done. Amazingly, until recently this degree of violence has not prevented political, social and economic progress in Colombia. Its literacy rate is one of the highest in Latin America, while its forty universities are full. An impressive number of women are enrolled in higher education and serve in public office.