Medellin Drug Traffickers Resume Terror Campaign : Colombia: Three hostages are taken to back amnesty demands. The government declines to confirm that the narcotics cartel is responsible.

The Colombian government refused Friday to acknowledge publicly what the local news media are calling a fact: Medellin drug traffickers have resumed their terrorist campaign by seizing at least three hostages.

A statement sent to newspapers, radio and television stations late Thursday confirmed that traffickers had kidnaped two leading journalists and the sister of Colombia’s ambassador to Italy.

The statement said the hostages would be freed only when the government of President Cesar Gaviria agrees to grant drug traffickers amnesty.

Justice Minister Jaime Giraldo Angel refused to discuss the demands at a Friday news conference. He said that the government had still not determined whether traffickers of the so-called Medellin cartel were behind the recent kidnapings.

“I will not speculate on unverified reports of the cartel’s responsibility,” Giraldo told reporters.

But a senior journalist at El Tiempo, Colombia’s leading newspaper, said government officials had privately acknowledged the cartel’s responsibility for Wednesday’s kidnaping of the daily’s managing editor, Francisco Santos. An armed band abducted Santos, the 28-year-old son of El Tiempo’s publisher, Wednesday after forcing his car to the side of the road and killing his chauffeur.

El Tiempo has reported that it received several calls from a man, identified as Carlos Jimenez, who represented the cartel. The caller said traffickers had kidnaped Santos and several other Colombians.

“We have every reason to believe that the calls were authentic,” the El Tiempo source said, while asking not to be identified.

“The government has told us that it will not deal directly with the cartel to obtain the release of Francisco,” the journalist said. “The Gaviria administration is moving very cautiously in order to avoid the accusation that it is negotiating with Pablo Escobar.”

Escobar is the cartel’s leader, accused of masterminding terrorist attacks that have killed more than 500 people since August, 1989.

Both the caller and the cartel statement said traffickers are also holding Diana Turbay de Uribe, the editor of a news magazine and daughter of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay. Turbay de Uribe is missing along with five other journalists who had been working with her. Another Bogota newspaper, La Prensa, reported Friday that the cartel is planning to release the other five journalists, including a West German.

In its statement, the cartel also claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s kidnaping of Marina Montoya, the sister of Colombia’s ambassador to Italy.

Both the phone calls to El Tiempo and the cartel statement give further evidence that traffickers have ended a two-month-old cease-fire in their terrorist campaign. Traffickers said in July that they were suspending bombings and assassinations to show their desire for peace.

The move was intended to pressure Gaviria, who took office Aug. 7, to call off the government’s anti-drug crackdown, which began in 1989. As part of the campaign, Gaviria’s predecessor, Virgilio Barco Vargas, had decreed new anti-drug measures, including the extradition of trafficking suspects to the United States.

Gaviria pledged to maintain the pressure on the cartel, but he soon offered traffickers incentives for maintaining their truce and turning themselves in. A recent presidential order said that surrendering drug suspects would be tried at home rather than extradited to the United States. It also offered traffickers reduced prison sentences in exchange for their cooperation.

Some analysts say the cartel, viewing Gaviria’s peace overture as inadequate, decided to take hostages to force negotiations.

“The Medellin cartel is obviously dissatisfied with the government’s plan,” said the El Tiempo journalist. “It wants much more than a promise of trial in Colombia, and it is willing to use terrorist tactics once again to achieve its goal.”

The source added that Gaviria’s efforts to persuade traffickers to surrender had failed. He repeated what the Medellin cartel representative had told the paper, “None, absolutely none of us, will turn ourselves in.”

Gaviria has yet to acknowledge that the cartel is restarting its terrorist campaign. But the president said in a television interview broadcast Thursday that the government miight be willing to “revise the extradition mechanism” if traffickers refrain from carrying out new terrorist attacks.