They also rake in an additional several hundred million dollars a year in kidnappings and extortion.
These warnings stem from anti-government demonstrations, as well as reports of kidnappings and other terrorist activity.
There are still reports of kidnappings, or attempted kidnappings, every month, a BBC correspondent says.
Mr. Videla later described the kidnappings as "charity, " although admitted that it had been a crime.
Syria's conflict, as the kidnappings attest, is increasingly splitting the region along sectarian lines.
The Lebanon kidnappings underscored the fragile balance in the country, where sectarian tensions are deep.
Kidnappings threaten to destabilize entire countries, like Mexico, where the drug cartels pinpoint anyone with money.
Drive-by shootings, kidnappings, bombings, and slayings of local politicians and law enforcement personnel are commonplace.
He started off as an ivory poacher before moving on to sandalwood smuggling and kidnappings.
Experts say it is impossible to know the exact number because many kidnappings go unreported.
Are we so confident and are we so sure that it will encourage further kidnappings?
Situations relating to the priests' kidnappings "have not been clarified, " said the group's director, Gaston Chillier.
There are slightly fewer kidnappings than there were, but still more than 3, 000 last year.
"Kidnappings are down by 33% and we have managed to dismantle many criminal organisations, " he said.
The majority of the extortion cases, kidnappings and assassinations are carried out by them.
Revenues from kidnappings enable the FARC to purchase additional arms and kill innocent people.
While severely weakened in recent years, it continues to carry out kidnappings and attacks on security forces.
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Homicides and kidnappings have diminished by 23% and 32%, respectively during the first eight months of 2003.
Shiites started fleeing about nine months ago when they became the targets of threats, kidnappings and killings.
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Robberies at gunpoint -- "express kidnappings" as they are called -- are regular occurrences in middle-class neighborhoods.
While severely weakened in recent years, the rebels have continued to carry out kidnappings and attack security forces.
Kidnappings and armed robberies have increased since a popular uprising ousted Egypt's long-ruling dictator, Hosni Mubarak, last year.
China's Guangdong Province, teeming with affluent businessmen from Taiwan and Hong Kong, has seen a spike in kidnappings.
The group threatened further kidnappings and killings of U.S. and British citizens if the policies do not change.
Kidnappings and armed robberies have increased during the year since Egypt's long-ruling dictator, Hosni Mubarak, was overthrown.
He has already had some success in tackling crime, especially the rampant kidnappings that have terrorised many businessmen.
The FARC has financed itself through extortions from kidnappings as well as revenues generated through extensive drug trafficking.
Violence, militias, kidnappings, unexplained murders... all seem to be becoming just part of the daily backdrop of their lives, like traffic.
The Democrats, Japan's biggest opposition party, were against it, and public opinion was evenly split before the kidnappings.
Kidnappings and cartel violence are prominent among the U.S. State Department's lengthy set of warnings about travel in Mexico.
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