After Mr. Bonilla was taken, the guerrillas demanded money from his wife.
Alfonso Cano, a member of the FARC's seven-strong secretariat, as its top leadership is called, admits that the guerrillas receive money from "retentions" (kidnaps).
Still, nobody disputes that the guerrillas make money from taxing coca farmers and traffickers, and from running processing laboratories and airstrips.
But since the guerrillas earn money and arms from drug trafficking, that distinction seems increasingly unconvincing to Ecuadoreans worried about getting dragged into the conflict.
They are looking into charges that Mr. Montesinos was involved in running guns to Colombian guerrillas, laundering money and directing death squads.
As for his mother, because the guerrillas needed money to buy weapons, she was sent to Tegucigalpa (with the toddler Roberto) as part of a group charged with kidnapping a businessman for ransom.
Leftist guerrillas were extorting money from landowners and torching the homes of those who did not pay.
Despite the government's military gains against the FARC guerrillas, plenty of money still needs to be spent on security and reparations.
Greystar's Willy Spat speculates that the kidnap exchange might have been part of "some deal with the guerrillas to extort money from us".
A group of former guerrillas, pooling government money they received on laying down their arms, bought 17percentt of the factory three years ago.
