Kidnappers Seize Colombia Lawmakers

Yahoo! News ^ | Sun Apr 14 | SUSANNAH A. NESMITH, Associated Press Writer

[Luis Gonzalez]

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Suspected rebels dressed in military uniforms burst into a provincial parliament building in the city of Cali on Thursday and kidnapped 13 lawmakers, police said.

The army later rescued one of the legislators and four aides, said Fernando Cardenas of the army's anti-kidnapping unit.

Witnesses said the gunmen posed as a bomb squad — and even brought a dog — to gain entry. One officer was killed in the attack and two soldiers were injured in the rescue operation near Cali, Colombia's third-largest city and the capital of Valle de Cauca state.

Legislature president Juan Carlos Narvaez called his wife Thursday afternoon on a cell phone to ask that rescue operations be suspended, saying it endangered himself and the other hostages.

"The authorities are asked to stop the hostilities," Fabiola Perdomo, Narvaez's wife, told Caracol Radio. She said her husband told her that one of the 12 hostages was seriously injured. She said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was responsible for the mass kidnapping, confirming officials' suspicions.

Army Gen. Francisco Rene Pedrazo said the rescue operation would continue.

Witnesses said they thought the kidnappers were from the army and were evacuating people in the building. Witness told reporters the hostages were driven off in vehicles.

Government security forces pursued in vehicles and by helicopter to the outskirts of Cali and rescued five people, Col. Carlos Arevalo, chief of the army's anti-kidnapping squad, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Initial reports that all five were lawmakers were erroneous, officials said.

At the same time, police were seen entering the parliament building and came out with an injured officer, who was bleeding heavily and appeared to be unconscious. Officials said the officer had been shot inside by a kidnapper and died of his wound.

Interior minister Armando Estrada blamed the FARC for the kidnapping, calling it "an attack on liberty and democracy."

The state governor's office next door was evacuated and the mayor's office was conducting security checks, according to city spokesman Camilo Mayor.

Colombia's 38-year civil war has escalated in recent weeks, after peace talks collapsed.

On Tuesday, four people were injured when three small bombs exploded in Bogota. Two mortars were launched near the presidential palace in the capital but neither exploded. And just outside Bogota, a booby-trapped car with a dead body inside exploded, killing two police bomb technicians.

On Sunday, two bombs exploded in Villavicencio, a provincial capital southeast of Bogota, killing 12.

President Andres Pastrana ended peace talks with the FARC on Feb. 20 after the rebels hijacked an airliner and kidnapped a senator who was aboard.

Cali, 185 miles southwest of Bogota, has suffered mass kidnappings before. In 1999, rebels from the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN, burst into a Sunday Mass and kidnapped more than 100 worshippers. In 2000, more than 60 people were kidnapped by the ELN from roadside restaurants outside Cali.

Last month, the archbishop of Cali was assassinated as he left church. Police have not identified suspects in the case, but the archbishop had recently publicly questioned the legislative elections, saying candidates had accepted money from drug dealers.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Venezuela is gone, Colombia is next.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Wednesday, 10 April, 2002, 20:24 GMT 21:24 UK

Colombian rebels declare war on oil

The ELN today boasts about 3,500 members

One of Colombia's biggest rebel groups has declared that oil companies working in the country are now "military targets".

Commander Pablo, a representative of the ELN (National Liberation Army in English), told reporters that Occidental Petroleum from the US, Spanish-Argentine combine Repsol-YPF and Colombia's own Ecopetrol were now targets.

The group, he said, reading from a communique, would now resume bombing a oil pipeline the three operate.

The pipeline is the Cano Limon, the second largest in Colombia with a capacity of 120,000 barrels a day. It was bombed a record 170 times last year - by the bigger FARC guerrillas as well as the ELN.

The group is also protesting at $89m in aid included in President George W Bush's proposed 2003 US budget, to train and outfit troops to protect the pipeline.

Decades of war

The 38-year-old civil war in Colombia has claimed at least 40,000 lives since the beginning of the 1990s.

The ELN called off a truce with the government at the beginning of this year, accusing the government of bad faith and returning to war both with the national armed forces and with right-wing paramilitaries who are at least as feared, if not more so, than the left-wing rebels.

The ELN itself was formed in the 1960s by Colombians inspired by the socialist Cuban revolution of the late 1950s.

Both groups make much of their money out of kidnapping and extortion, often involving the oil industry.

But the ELN is distinguished from the FARC in part because it splits its efforts between military and social work, and its refusal to become involved in the narcotics trade.

[Luis Gonzalez]

FYI

[The Great Satan]

Perhaps Dubya can send Powell over there for a mind-meld.

[livius]

I read about this yesterday in the Spanish press.

Colombia is under seige. Now that Chavez has retaken Venezuela with his goons, these forces in Colombia will be completely brazen.

Not that they've appeared to be very intidated up to now. But it will get worse.

[Luis Gonzalez]

There was some Venezuelan public figure speaking on a Miami-based panish AM Station, thanking CNN for ignoring the hundreds of thousands who marched against Chavez, and giving coverage to the Chavistas toay.

[OldFriend]

Armand Hammer's Occidental Petroleum is the oil company of record in Colombia.

[Mulder]

Thanks for the flag, Luis.

It looks like the reds, and the scourge of communism, are on the march again.

I have no idea how much oil is down there, but it seems like it would be prudent for the US to covertly "make the necessary changes" to oust the communists down there. That would certainly reduce our dependence on the middle eastern oil.

A small effort in South America is preferrable to a large effort in the Middle East.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Armand Hammer's Al Gore's Occidental Petroleum is the oil company of record in Colombia."

With the fall of Venezuela to communist hands, now we may have to defend Al's investments.

[TxGrandMom]

But the ELN is distinguished from the FARC in part because it splits its efforts between military and social work, and its refusal to become involved in the narcotics trade.

What was the source of the article from which the above statement was taken?

We have a family member who recently returned to the States from a two-year posting in Bogotá. I visited there twice. All three groups, FARC, ELN, and the rightist paramilitary group, are all known to be involved with the drug trade in varying degrees.

The FARC (and I think the ELN) originated with a marxist philosophy. In actuality, that has deteriorated into mainly just raw fighting for power; although they use the marxist words to recruit students from the public universities.

Sigh. If it didn't seem so improbable, it would look as if there were some controlled manipulation of world events against the U.S./democracy.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Sigh. If it didn't seem so improbable, it would look as if there were some controlled manipulation of world events against the U.S./democracy."

You forgot to close your tags.

I'll do it for you.

/sarcasm

[BARLF]

Keep your chin up Luis,its not over yet.

[Travis McGee]

Those who wear the uniform of their enemy to gain advantage such as these FARC terrorists did should be hung or shot on the spot when captured, as should the officers above them who provided the uniforms and the orders. Hung or shot, no exceptions.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Things are looking grim in the neighborhood, while we try to fix stuff elsewhere.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Travis McGee]

Have you seen the latest bloodbath going on at the hands of Maoist rebels (PRC backed) in Nepal?

[Luis Gonzalez]

No.

Can you give me a link?

[Luis Gonzalez]

Hey guys, I have an idea.

Does anyone know where we could all "chat" for a little while?

[backhoe]

Link:

Nepal Death Toll Rises to 160 [worst battle in 6 years]

Chat? Well, there is Yahoo!
( but it's a horrible format- prefer Free Dominion or Free Britannica, or EtherZone, or CapitolHillBlue, myself....)

---

BTW, for those who want to read up on the alphabet-soup list of "players" South of the Border ( and elsewhere )--

The Web of Terror

Castro, the Carribean, and Terrorism

[livius]

...thanking CNN for ignoring the hundreds of thousands who marched against Chavez....

All too easy to believe, alas. And one of the reasons that Chavez was able to hop back into power.