Anti-government guerrillas kidnapped a Colombian presidential candidate on a dangerous road into their former safe haven as the advancing army pushed into the disputed jungle territory, officials said on Sunday.
Trailing badly in preelection polls, Ingrid Betancourt was seeking to be the first candidate to enter the former enclave since army troops swept in on Saturday after peace talks collapsed. She ignored repeated military advice to stay away.
The 40-year-old mother-of-two, a critic of the guerrillas who is running on an independent ticket, was seized with her campaign manager, Clara Rojas, by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known in Spanish as FARC, on Saturday afternoon.
Betancourt's driver, Adair Lamprea, said their jeep was stopped by about 10 rebels at a FARC roadblock formed by two buses packed with explosives.
"Suddenly, one of the guerrillas trod on a mine and was thrown into the air. ... They were waiting for orders about what to do with Ingrid when, right at that moment, the mine exploded and we were all really nervous," he said.
The driver, French photographer Alain Keler, who was working for Marie Claire magazine, and a Colombian cameraman were also detained but were freed when the guerrillas took Betancourt and Rojas away.
"The commander told us they got the person they wanted; we had nothing to do with it. ... They told us they wanted presidential candidates and lawmakers," Lamprea said.
Military helicopters buzzed over the dense jungle terrain on Sunday searching for Betancourt and her captors, but army officials said it was too risky to send in ground troops.
Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, pleaded with the FARC to let her daughter go. "Please respect her life and the lives of all other kidnapped people. I am suffering just like their mothers are suffering," she said, choking back tears.
Betancourt is running as an independent in May 26 elections but polls give her less than 1 percent support. Alvaro Uribe, a fierce critic of peace talks, is tipped to win by a landslide.
Analysts expect the collapse of peace talks last week to spark an upsurge in violence in the run-up to the vote.
In Colombia's 1990 elections, front-runner Luis Carlos Galan and two other candidates were gunned down by drug gangs.
HUNDREDS OF HOSTAGES
President Andres Pastrana gave the enclave to the rebels in late 1998 to spur peace talks. But they failed to halt a 38-year war pitting the rebels against outlawed paramilitaries and the army that has claimed 40,000 lives in the last decade.
The 17,000-strong FARC is currently holding about 800 kidnap victims, most of whom were seized for ransom and are kept in makeshift jungle prison camps. They also have five legislators and the FARC said last year they would target more public officials to force the release of rebel prisoners.
The United Nations' human rights office urged all armed groups to free kidnap victims, saying: "This type of action aggravates the country's already delicate situation."
Last September, rebels kidnapped and later killed Consuelo Araujo, a former culture minister and the wife of Colombia's current attorney general. They shot the popular folk music promoter in the head because she was unable to keep up as they tried to escape pursuing army troops.
Thousands of soldiers swept into what had been the FARC's Switzerland-sized safe haven after Pastrana declared an end to three years of peace talks last Wednesday when the guerrillas hijacked a commercial airliner and kidnapped a senator.
The FARC had already fled the main towns in the enclave by the time the troops marched in but were still at large in parts of the jungle and set up occasional roadblocks at the weekend.
Deep inside the former rebel zone, residents had hung white flags outside their homes in the hope they would not be bombed by the armed forces seeking to destroy FARC camps. Locals also fear paramilitaries could kill them as FARC collaborators.
Pastrana, who leaves office in August, visited the former enclave on Saturday hours before Betancourt's kidnap.
Betancourt, who is known for attention-grabbing stunts like handing out the anti-impotence drug Viagra, traveled into the FARC enclave earlier this month and criticized their tactics.
The government said it had advised Betancourt not to go back to the zone for security reasons and refused her request for transport in a military helicopter. Other candidates, who had planned similar trips, took the advice and stayed home.
Later, she was urged to turn back at a military checkpoint, but did not. "The government has spared no effort to guarantee normal campaigning conditions and candidates' security but all of these are pointless if the candidates don't listen to the security recommendations," it said in a statement.
(China Daily February 25, 2002)
