By Guy Smith Reporting from Colombia for Correspondent

Like most people Olga Cristina never thought it would happen to her. But in today's Colombia it did.

The morning of 2 September 2001 began like any other.

Ramiro and Olga Cristina before FARC enforced separation

Olga Cristina was at home making coffee and her husband Ramiro was on the veranda reading the paper.

"Suddenly there was a shout," she says, "and there were men standing there in camouflage. They were carrying guns and they told us to lie on the floor."

The gunmen searched the house for cash and when they did not find any, decided to take 58 year old Ramiro as a hostage.

"I asked to say goodbye but the leader said I couldn't. Ramiro began to panic and said we might never meet again but I told him not to think like that. I said we would see each other again and everything would work out fine."

Uniformed bandits

Ramiro was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, otherwise known as FARC.

It is a Marxist guerrilla group which grew out of the land reform campaigns in the early 1960's.

The Guala anti kidnapping police are hitting FARC where and when they can

But over the years their revolutionary idealism has become twisted and perverted. They are now a 20,000 strong ruthless army which controls much of Colombia's cocaine production.

Extortion and kidnapping are lucrative sidelines.

Six weeks went by after Ramiro was taken away.

Then Olga Cristina started to receive telephone calls from the kidnappers.

At first their demands were impossibly high - they wanted $100,000 for her husbands freedom.

"When I explained that I simply couldn't afford that kind of money they said they would cut Ramiro up and send me the pieces so that I would realise they were serious."

Sometimes the kidnapped are freed

Eventually the kidnappers agreed a ransom of $50,000 - just over �30,000 - and Ramiro was put on the phone as "proof of life."

"He said he was fine and was looking forward to seeing me. Then the kidnapper took the phone from him and said I had two days to come up with the money."

Hopes dashed

Some 48 hours later Olga Cristina drove to the rendezvous in a remote valley east of the capital.

Clutching a bag full of dollar bills in mixed denominations she waited - as instructed - by a bridge over a stream.

Three hours went by and at dusk a band of gunman walked down the mountainside and emerged from the mist.

Violence is a part of everyday life in Colombia

"There were seven guys, all very young, carrying guns and ammunition," recalls Olga Cristina. "They were very nervous and edgy."

But Ramiro wasn't with them.

The kidnappers took the money and said they'd release their hostage in "a few days."

Then they walked back into the mist.

That was 4 December 2001. Olga Cristina has not heard a word since then.

She has no idea if Ramiro is alive or dead. Every time the phone rings she hopes it will be the kidnappers renewing contact, but she also fears it may be the police with news that a body has been found.

Olga Cristina's nightmare is not unusual in Bogot�.

Kidnap capital of the world

More people are kidnapped in Colombia than anywhere else on earth. The figures are staggering.

In the first eight months of 2002, 2,020 people were abducted. In August alone there were 248 new cases.

And those are just the ones the authorities know about. Many more people discreetly pay up and keep quiet - keen to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

During the six weeks I spent researching and filming this report in Colombia, several kidnap victims told me how they had been abducted at police roadblocks or flagged down by police patrols and then hustled away.

Some relatives actually get to talk to the FARC guerrillas

Whether it is off duty policemen operating in league with kidnappers or guerrillas using stolen police uniforms and vehicles, it is hard to prove.

But either way the perception among nearly all Colombians I talked to is that the police and army are at best incompetent and at worst deeply corrupt.

Most victims are released within about six months, but some are held for years - or simply disappear altogether. Like Olga Cristina's husband.

Relative dilemma

David Buitrago, is a lawyer working for Pais Libre, a human rights foundation which gives advice to the families of kidnap victims.

He says: "When a relative is kidnapped, the family faces a terrible dilemma.

After the radio show, comes yet more silence

"Kidnapping in Colombia is a highly profitable crime. If families keep giving in to ransom demands, then the problem will only get worse.

By paying today we simply ensure that tomorrow there will be even more kidnappings."

He is right, of course, but when a loved one is kidnapped, everybody pays up in the end. Wouldn't you?

Kidnapped in Columbia: Sunday 22 September 2002 on BBC Two at 1915 BST

Reporter: Guy Smith
Editor: Karen O'Connor
Deputy Editor: David Belton
Online Producer: Andrew Jeffrey