Peace talks with Colombia’s EMC guerrillas to begin...
Human rights prosecutors attacked in northern Colombia
Colombia’s judicial branch thrown offline in major cyber...
7 years into peace process, Colombia has strategy...
Colombia’s estimated cocaine production reaches new record high
Colombia’s president wants end to sanctions on Venezuela
Colombia’s ranchers federation threatens to mobilize over land...
Court orders arrest of Colombia’s former Congress president
Colombia’s intelligence agency assassinated presidential candidate: prosecution
Colombia’s former army chief indicted for 130 extrajudicial...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
News

FARC kidnap Chinese oil workers

by Adriaan Alsema June 9, 2011
1.5K

Colombia news - FARC guerrillas

Three Chinese workers for the British oil company Emerald Energy have been taken hostage in southern Colombia, officials said Thursday, blaming the kidnapping on FARC guerrillas.

A fourth foreigner, who was working as a translator, was also taken hostage, said Edilberto Ramon Henido, secretary of the local government in southern Caqueta department, but he could not confirm the man’s nationality.

Citing sources in China’s embassy in Bogota, the Xinhua news agency said all four men were Chinese workers for the oil company.

The kidnapping took place as the employees were traveling in a car near the town of San Vicente de Caguan, Henido said, when a group of armed men blocked the road and took them hostage.

At least seven gunmen dressed in civilian clothes carried out the assault, Colombian army general Javier Florez told RCN radio in Bogota, adding the workers were taken by their kidnappers into the mountains, and that troops had already begun searching for them.

Their Colombian driver was set free after, said Henido, who blamed the kidnapping on leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), South America’s longest running insurgency.

The FARC, which has been at war with the Colombian government since 1964, is the country’s oldest and largest leftist group, with an estimated 8,000 combatants.

Last year, 282 people were kidnapped in the South American country — a 32 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to official figures.

Criminals were responsible for most of the kidnappings — 57 percent — compared to 35 percent for leftist guerrillas.

Earlier this year, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos warned multinational companies that they would be kicked out of the country if they paid ransoms to rebel groups or other criminal gangs that have kidnapped their employees.

That warning, in March, came after more than 20 employees of South American Exploration, a subcontractor of Canadian oil company Talisman Energy and Colombia’s Ecopetrol, were freed by their kidnappers, with Santos noting there was talk among the freed hostages of a ransom of some $2.6 million.

“They insinuated that that figure had already been agreed on with the company,” Santos said at the time, noting that it was a criminal offense under Colombian law to pay off kidnappers with ransom payments.

CaquetaFARChostages

Contribute

Trending

  • Colombia’s judicial branch thrown offline in major cyber attack

  • Human rights prosecutors attacked in northern Colombia

  • Peace talks with Colombia’s EMC guerrillas to begin in October

For patrons

Downloads for patrons

Related articles

  • Locals destroy Chinese oil operation in southern Colombia

  • Caqueta

  • FARC reintegration chief assassinated in south Colombia

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Rss

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion