Rebel Leader Linked to Kidnappings Captured
Colombian troops have captured a top leftist rebel commander suspected of masterminding the 1999 kidnapping of an entire congregation from a Roman Catholic church, the army said.
Ramiro Velez, a regional leader of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the smaller of Colombia’s two main rebel groups, was arrested Saturday during an operation in Chachaui, 300 miles southwest of Bogota, said Gen. Reinaldo Castellanos.
Velez, known as “El Viejo” (the Old Man), is blamed for the May 1999 gunpoint abductions of more than 140 Catholic worshipers from the La Maria church in the southwestern city of Cali, the army said in a statement.
The rebels later freed all the hostages but only after collecting hefty ransoms from their families.
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