A Venezuelan guerrilla group calling themselves the Bolivarian Armed Liberation Force is supposedly responsible for the kidnapping of a number of Colombian amateur football players, and is allegedly backed by the Venezuelan government.
A councilman of Ureña, Alejandro Garcia, said that the group is comprised of Venezuelan and Colombian subversives, reports newspaper El Espectador.
"They are [obviously] supported by the Venezuelan authorities because they are not arrested or attacked, and they move at ease and with full authority, terrorizing the population of the southern state of Tachira," Garcia said.
There seems to be confusion regarding the exact number of kidnapped Colombians, with estimates ranging from ten to fifteen, and there is yet to be government confirmation of the details of the kidnapping. Miami's El Nuevo Herald reported that the director of Colombia's Anti-Kidnapping Police, Colonel Nicolas Muñoz, said that "so far we are trying to gather intelligence information from the judicial police and the Venezuelan authorities ... but there [has been] no official communication."
According to El Espectador, twelve members of an amateur football field, ten of whom are allegedly Colombian, were kidnapped at noon on Sunday from a makeshift football field in the town of El Chururu, south of Tachira. Apparently the kidnappers seized a list of players' names from the referee and, after a threatening them with firearms, began to call names "at random". The players were forced into a number of vehicles and were driven away. Their families did not report the event for fear of reprisals.
Caracol Radio reported that according to eyewitnesses, those that had no outstanding debts were released, without further details.
Venezuelan authorities have not yet referred to the alleged kidnappings. It is possible that the event is an operation of illegal groups forcibly recruiting new members.
So far the identities of two of the allegedly kidnapped Colombians have been released: Gerardo Vega Siza and Yorguin Julian Anaya Vega, who had been in Tachira for a year selling public transport products to Venezuela.
A number of organizations, including guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug traffickers, operate in the border area between Colombia and Venezuela, where there are numerous kidnappings and other crimes.
Andrewmann552
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... This sounds very bizarre. I know Chavez is Saddam Hussein for Colombians, but it makes little sense for the government to mobilize an armed force to target people like amateur football players. El Espectador appears to be spreading classic, corporate media schlock. When armed squads are assembled, they are usually meant to hit specific targets, even the FARC mostly kidnaps cops, soldiers, politicians etc. d**k Cheney's now notorious CIA commandos were sent into Iran to target Iranian scientists, not soccer players. |
gringomedellin
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... thou it my sound bizarrre I see no reason for El Espector to make up this story, but report what it is being told, clearly there is more to this story, I hope we find out the rest of it. |
Adriaan
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... It didn't just appear in El Espectador though. Mind you, people get kidnapped by the dozens in Venezuela, them being Colombians is probably just a coincidence. |
Bluebird
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... This is obviously just another cheap ploy by Colombia to cast Chavez in a bad light!!! It was probably Colombians that kidnapped the futbol players and blamed it on Venezuela to make Chavez look bad! |
Andrewmann552
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... Adriaan, I agree, many are kidnapped in Venezuela, scholars like Eva Golinger have linked it to a spike of activity by Colombian paramilitaries in Venezuela. kidnappings are nothing new to the region, I just question the idea that the Venezuelan government itself is behind the senseless kidnapping of soccer players. You would think Chavez would target former DAS workers. |
Adriaan
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... @ Andrewmann552, "Scholars" like Eva Golinger don't have much credibility outside Venezuela. Saying Colombian paramilitaries are responsible for the kidnapping in Venezuela to me seems a politically convenient lie for those who don't want to admit that Chavez is failing when it comes to public security. Venezuela autonomously has a security issue to deal with. This has nothing or little to do with Colombia. |
