Guerrillas Abduct an American Priest : Colombia: The clergyman is the third U.S. citizen kidnaped this week. Rebels say ‘every U.S. interest’ is a target.

As President Bush attended a drug summit in Cartagena on Thursday, guerrillas kidnaped an American priest in Cali, the third American seized by rebels this week.

Shortly afterward, the self-styled National Liberation Army (ELN), a Cuban-line guerrilla band blamed for all three abductions, issued a statement declaring that “every U.S. interest in Colombia” has been declared a target.

The State Department identified the kidnaped priest as Father Francis A. Amico, an American who works in Colombia for a Canadian religious order. RCN, a local radio network, said that armed men seized the priest as he and several nuns were leaving St. Andrews parish in Cali, one of this country’s principal cities and home to one of its drug cartels.

A State Department official here said that the kidnapers identified themselves as members of the ELN.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that witnesses overheard the kidnapers say the victim would be released but without saying when.

On Tuesday, members of ELN kidnaped two Americans--David L. Kent and James A. Donnelly--to protest Bush’s visit to Cartagena and said they would put their captives on trial, according to police. Kent, 40, is a teacher from Indianapolis, while Donnelly is a 65-year-old businessman from Detroit.

An RCN broadcast earlier in the week indicated that Donnelly was being freed, but both are believed still held.

On Wednesday, the White House denounced the kidnapings of Kent and Donnelly and said that Bush would cooperate with Colombian officials to help “in any way deemed appropriate to help resolve this situation.”

RCN’s report of Amico’s abduction said that the American is one of four priests working in Aguas Blancas, one of Cali’s poorest neighborhoods, and that the priests are helped by four nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, founded in India by Mother Teresa.

The ELN guerrillas’ Thursday statement, which was written in English and distributed to local media, said:

“We are letting you know that every U.S. interest in Colombia has been declared a military objective by our organization. It is perfectly clear that the Bush Administration is more interested in combatting the people’s movement and the guerrilla organizations than in eliminating the production and consumption of cocaine.

“We have decided to give the U.S. government a lesson concerning respect: If it meddles in Colombia, we will fight back as Vietnam and El Salvador have done. In our case the slogan we have chosen is: Death to the gringos.”