ABSTRACT
Hostage-taking is a characteristic tactic in the repertoire of modern terrorism.1 By exercising a terrible threat against the lives of their victims, the terrorist hostage-takers seek to exert a degree of psychological pressure to obtain changes of policy or major concessions, such as huge ransom payments, the release of fellow terrorists from gaol or the broadcasting or publication of their grievances and demands. The vast majority of kidnappings are carried out by common criminals to gain ransoms. In Latin America this has become a major industry with huge profits to be made.2
