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Colombian Guerrillas Kidnap Mayor, Three Farmers
Suspected guerrillas kidnapped the mayor of San Francisco municipality, Luis Duque Toro, in northwestern Colombia and three peasants in the south of the country, Colombian police said Saturday.
Mayor Duque was kidnapped Friday by suspected members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second largest rebel group, when he was supervising the construction of a new school in the municipality, police said.
Duque's kidnapping was confirmed Saturday by officials of San Francisco municipality, who called military authorities to rescue the mayor on Friday night.
Duque was the second mayor taken hostage by the rebels operating in this region. Two weeks ago, some gunmen of the ELN kidnapped William Ospina, mayor of Sonson municipality in the state of Antioquia.
Meanwhile, suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest guerrilla force in the country, Saturday took a rural estate in the south of the country and kidnapped three people.
The rebels reached the town of San Cayetano in the state of Meta, where they kidnapped three farmers and seized 150 cows, according an official report.
Colombian authorities would try to find out if this event is related to war tax declared by FARC in March 2000 as a counterweight to Plan Colombia, a government campaign against drug crops production and drug trafficking.
The war tax is collected among merchants and industrialists. If they refuse to pay it, the guerrillas would take them hostage and destroy their estates and equipment.
According to the private foundation, Pais Libre, more than 3, 000 people were kidnapped last year in Colombia and 75 percent of the kidnappings were conducted by the rebel groups.
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