Members of the FARC hijacked a bus carrying supporters of presidential candidate Rafael Pardo Sunday, used it to transport guerrillas and then returned the bus, with the termporarily kidnapped driver, at around six o’clock that evening.
The bus was traveling in the department of Cauca, south west Colombia, when it was intercepted. The Liberal Party supporters who had attended a rally in Santander de Quilichao were told by guerrillas to get off the bus, leaving the driver on board, so it could be used for what Pardo has called “terrorist purposes.”
The bus was used to evacuate guerrillas from the area, where there have been armed clashes recently. The driver was allowed to return at dusk to where the bus had originally been intercepted.
“We energetically reject this attitude of the armed groups,” said Pardo at a meeting in Cali during his tour of south and southwest Colombia.
Pardo himself was delayed on Sunday when an alleged guerrilla road-side bomb had to be detonated before authorities considered it safe enough for the presidential candidate to travel through Cauca.