BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian troops have rescued a fourth officer kidnapped by FARC rebels less than a week before an election to succeed President Alvaro Uribe, authorities said yesterday.
After intense combat in the country’s southern jungles, elite troops liberated three officers on Sunday in a raid on a guerrilla camp, including a police general and a colonel held for nearly 12 years in secret jungle prisons by Latin America’s oldest surviving insurgency.
Hours later, troops also found Colonel William Donato, also held for 12 years by the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
“During the operation he had hidden; they were searching for him for hours and at 5:30 am he made contact with one of the patrols,” an armed forces spokesman said.
Rebels from the FARC have been battered by Uribe’s US-backed security drive that has pushed them into remote jungles and mountains, where they are still holding around 18 military and police hostages for political leverage.
