Colombians Frustrated by Latest Rebel Kidnappings

Residents of this violence-ridden country struggled Monday to comprehend the logic behind the audacious mass kidnapping of 144 churchgoers by a guerrilla group that says it is seeking peace.

In Colombia’s largest kidnapping, the entire congregation of La Maria church, in a wealthy neighborhood of the southwestern city of Cali, was abducted at gunpoint during Sunday Mass. Members of the National Liberation Army, this nation’s second-largest rebel group, herded the churchgoers into covered trucks and headed for the city’s mountainous outskirts.

The military later reported that a ground and helicopter assault had forced the rebels, known by the Spanish initials ELN, to free 84 of the hostages, most of them women and children. Earlier reports said about 100 people had been abducted and 79 had been freed.

Throughout the day Monday, anti-insurgency troops continued efforts to find and free the remaining 60 hostages, hoping that putting cautious military pressure on the guerrillas would coerce them into releasing more victims to make a quicker getaway.

In April, the ELN was responsible for the high-profile hijacking of a domestic commercial airliner and the abduction of more than 40 passengers, including an American. On that occasion, the guerrillas asked that a swath of land in Bolivar province be cleared of troops as a prelude to peace talks.

But the government refused to negotiate until all the hijacking victims were released, and 25, including the American, remain in ELN hands.

It would not be out of character for the rebels to demand ransoms from the families of their new captives while making a similar demand for territory now, said Juan Francisco Mesa, director of the Pais Libre organization, which advocates for kidnapping victims.

Colombia already has pulled all its military forces out of a large region in the south of the country as a prerequisite to a peace dialogue with the ELN’s larger and militarily superior counterpart, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The hostages freed Sunday recounted how a band of 30 to 40 guerrillas had entered the church during the homily, shouting that there was a bomb in the building and that they were going to deactivate it.

The Defense Ministry said a bodyguard of one of the churchgoers who pulled his gun while the congregation was being loaded onto the trucks was shot and killed.

“We’ve lost patience,” Cali Mayor Ricardo Cobo Lloreda said Monday, echoing frustration common among Colombians who have seen their country’s decades-long civil strife escalate even as a fragile peace process stumbles forward. “Cali is one of the safest cities in Colombia. This hit us hard.”

Cobo declared that the rebels had committed a triple violation of human rights by depriving the hostages of their right to religious expression, by mining a road during their escape and by using some of the kidnap victims as human shields as the military advanced.

Human rights activists deplored the ELN kidnapping as an aggression against children; some of those released were as young as 4.

The government issued a stinging reprimand after the kidnapping, holding the ELN responsible for the safety of its captives and casting doubt on the sincerity of the insurgents’ desire for peace talks.

“It is not possible to find roads to dialogue and reconciliation under the pressure of kidnapping or terrorist acts of any nature,” said Finance Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo, whom President Andres Pastrana named his next-in-command during the president’s current visit to Canada. Local media had speculated that Pastrana might ask Canada to become an international observer at the negotiating table with the FARC.

“It is surprising that the ELN is asking for an opportunity to initiate peace talks while it commits more and more crimes against the civilian population,” said Mesa, the kidnap victims advocate. He also questioned the wisdom of staging a kidnapping in a church.

Analysts saw the incursion as a warning that the ELN could be gaining strength militarily even as it inspires public distaste for its methods. Colombia’s rebel armies are largely regarded as rural forces. However, Sunday’s kidnapping occurred in daylight in Colombia’s third-largest city.

On average, five people are kidnapped a day in Colombia, where rebels use ransom payments, along with extortion and protection of drug crops, to finance their insurgencies.