And don&#x27;t forget the Ecuadorean kidnapping industry. I know a guy who was kidnapped four times (his family owns a banana plantation in Ecuador)<p>A friend of mine knows a guy in Columbia with no fingernails. He was kidnapped for 18 months, they wanted him to reveal the real owner of some land where his name was on the title. They removed his fingernails one by one.<p>That puts a bit of a damper on my own enthusiasm for South America. An uber driver from Brazil once asked me how I liked Brazil and I said &quot;it was fun to visit, but what about all the kidnappings?&quot;<p>And he said &quot;Oh, so you know what&#x27;s going on&quot;<p>Yeah I do. Really it&#x27;s not a region to visit carelessly.<p>(I travel a lot, I&#x27;m in India now)