17 Workers in Colombia Slain; Rebels Suspected
At least 17 people died on a banana plantation Tuesday when suspected leftist rebels opened fire on workers.
The gunmen stopped a truck carrying workers to the plantation in the Uraba region, a soldier at the local army brigade said in a telephone interview.
“The gunmen ordered the people off the truck and opened fire,” the soldier said. The brigade dispatched troops to the site, in an area near the Caribbean about 35 miles from the Panamanian border, to investigate the massacre.
Survivors of the attack blamed leftist rebels, according to Osvaldo Munoz, mayor of Carepa, a town six miles from the massacre site.
The victims were members of Hope, Peace and Liberty, a political party founded by demobilized rebels, Munoz told RCN radio.
The party has been in a bitter dispute with rebels of the Colombia Revolutionary Armed Forces, which backs the Communist Party and the leftist Patriotic Union party.
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