The brother of a mayor and the mother of a town councilor were kidnapped in the north-east Colombian Arauca department on Thursday and Friday, respectively, and taken to Venezuela. The attacks are ascribed to guerrilla group the ELN.
General Orlando Pineda, commander of the national police’s 5th Distict, announced that Alexander Avellenada, brother of Saravena Mayor Mario Avellenada, and Ana Judith Agudelo, mother of councilor Yerly Ramirez, were taken by their captors to Venezuelan territory close to the Colombian border.
“We determined that, very quickly, they passed through the border to the sector El Amparo (in the case of Agudelo) and to Puerto Contreras (in the case of Avellenada),” Pineda declared, according to EFE.
The police commander stated that the Colombian government will request the collaboration of Venezuela to help free the hostages as soon as possible.
Avellenada was reportedly teaching class when two young men took him hostage and took him by canoe to Venezuela. Police said that Agudelo was kidnapped near her house by two armed men, allegedly members of the ELN.