Lima syndrome
noun · first attested 1990s
The captors released more than three hundred hostages before the siege was two weeks old.
The tendency of captors to develop sympathy for their hostages; the inverse of Stockholm syndrome.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1990s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Lima
- In English
Lima syndrome
On 17 December 1996, fourteen members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement seized a reception at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima and held hundreds of guests. Within days they had let most of them go, including the most valuable ones, and observers concluded that the young captors had grown attached to the people they were guarding. The siege ended in April 1997 when Peruvian commandos tunneled in and stormed the compound.