Evidence for HSL Packet/Colombia kidnapping

[NicoleJB]

After seeing the news and stories about the released hostages in Colombia, don't you think that Colombia being a huge country for kidnapping that they have set up two phone messaging systems in the country to relay messages to the hostages. Is that a lower level of evidence of extreme hardship?

I think it said there is hundreds of thousands of hostages in Colombia and 700 us citizens still being held hostage.

That instills extreme fear in me as a US Citizen just starting this process and intending to go through the Colombia Embassy in Bogota.

What do you guys think?

[Pinkpig]

by itself it is not a strong hardship. if you can use it in conjunction to something that specifically makes it a hardship for you it could become a strong hardship. for example: say your psychologist treats you for fear of beind kidnapped, or say you were kidnapped as a child and that fear has existed since then, or say you had a close family member who was kidnapped, or say you are a known public official in Columbia and your chances of kidnapping are greater because the criminals will recognize your face and know that you have greater value to them than the average Joe on the street. Any/all of these situations make the case particular to you and there are ways to document why you would be more at risk of kidnapping.

The hardships are considered in their totality. So you have to weave a story of your hardships together proving why you cannot live in your country without him and why you cannot live in his country with him.

[NicoleJB]

You really do make alot of sense, so everything needs to tie together in the hardship packet to make a strong case.

How about children how they are affected I have two US citizen childred from my previous marriage, my son is six and he is deathly afraid of thunderstorms because of the recent tornado's in Iowa he is like a sponge he watches the news with me and he is so affected by the news.

Yesterday when he was watching the news about the kidnapping in Colombia he was scared for the kids in Colombia.

[emt103c]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_941.html