Candidate Is Apparently Kidnapped

A minor Colombian presidential candidate was apparently kidnapped by leftist rebels over the weekend while attempting to enter an increasingly anarchic zone once ceded by the government to guerrillas for peace talks.

Ingrid Betancourt, a former senator who won popularity in Europe for a memoir about her fight to expose corruption in Colombia, was reported missing late Saturday along with her campaign manager, Clara Rojas.

Betancourt, 40, was seized along with two journalists and two other passengers as she drove toward this sultry town, the capital of the zone until President Andres Pastrana abruptly canceled peace talks Wednesday.

Betancourt, famous for publicity stunts such as handing out Viagra and condoms on busy street corners to draw attention to her campaign, received less than 1% of the vote in recent polls.

“I told her that things were a little complicated, that there had been confrontations on the road,” said Nestor Leon Ramirez, San Vicente’s mayor and a supporter of Betancourt’s independent Oxygen Green party. “She said she was coming anyway.”

The two journalists, one a reporter from the French magazine Marie Claire and the second a Colombian photographer, were released Sunday morning along with the driver of the car, Adair Lamprea.

The three told Colombian army officials that guerrillas from the 13th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had seized Betancourt near the town of Montanitas, military officials said. The town is on the road between here and Florencia, a regional capital in southern Colombia.

Lamprea said that Betancourt was stopped by the guerrillas at a roadblock made of two boxes booby-trapped with explosives.

“The commander told us they got the person they wanted. We had nothing to do with it. . . . They told us they wanted presidential candidates and lawmakers,” he told the Reuters news agency.

As of late Sunday, no word had been heard from FARC officials to confirm or deny the kidnapping, but military officials said they were sure of the crime.

“‘It’s been confirmed. She has been kidnapped,” said Colombian army Sgt. Jose Roman, a spokesman for the military’s news agency.

The Switzerland-sized area that made up the detente zone has become increasingly dangerous since the government moved to retake the area after the collapse of talks to end Colombia’s nearly 40-year conflict.

The Colombian military and police have seized most of the region’s five urban centers, but vast outlying areas remain firmly in the hands of the FARC.

The Colombian government issued a statement Sunday saying it had warned Betancourt against making the trip. It said it had turned down her request for an escort to the region, saying the trip was too dangerous.

Ramirez said Betancourt told him that she was taking the risk because she wanted to show support for the people of San Vicente, who have worried that they will become targets of military reprisals because of their long association with the rebels.

“I’m going to be with you in good times and in bad,” Ramirez said she declared. “Now is a bad time, so I want to be with the people of San Vicente.”