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Colombia rebels free last airline hostages

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Colombia's second-largest Marxist rebel group freed on Wednesday the last two of more than 40 hostages seized in the hijacking of a commercial airliner 19 months ago.

Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas handed over Abner Duarte, a former president of state-run natural gas company Ecogas, together with fellow passenger Gloria Amaya.

Choking back tears, both later conceded to reporters that their return to freedom only came after their families paid kidnap ransoms on their behalf.

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Neither would say exactly how much money was demanded for their release, however.

"The government abandoned us," Amaya told the Caracol TV news station, alleging that authorities had long since given up on efforts to win a negotiated release of the two.

"Kidnapping is the most abominable thing on the face of the earth," she said.

The pair were the last victims still being held since April, 1999 when ELN gunmen commandeered an Avianca airlines commuter plane shortly after takeoff from a provincial capital and forced it to land near one of the rebel army's strongholds.

Most of the plane's 41 passengers and crew were freed last year, although one died in captivity of what the ELN said was heart failure.

"I feel like I've been brought back to life again," Duarte told RCN radio news from Bucaramanga, the capital of northern Santander province.

Duarte, who suffered from a diabetes-related condition together with low blood pressure and an inflamed colon during his months in captivity, said he was in good shape.

"I'd like to thank everyone who worked to free us. ... It's been a terrible nightmare ... five hundred and ninety days of complete anguish during which we had to put up with a great deal of suffering," he said, speaking in a telephone interview from a private clinic.

Last September, the ELN staged a mass kidnapping of around 80 people on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Cali. Three of the hostages died, from injuries or illness, but the remainder were later freed.

Wednesday's release came just over a week after Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), broke off long-standing peace talks with the government.

The FARC suspended the negotiations, which began in January 1999, after accusing the government of failing to halt right-wing "terrorism" and secretly fostering U.S. military intervention.

President Andres Pastrana said on Wednesday the government would continue to seek a negotiated solution to almost four decades of armed conflict while working to strengthen the Andean nation's embattled military.

"No war ends with the destruction of the enemy," Pastrana said in a speech to graduates of a Bogota military academy. "We can and should continue to seek a political solution to the conflict, while simultaneously increasing the armed forces capacity."

A total of nearly 3,000 abductions were reported in Colombia last year, and most were blamed on entrenched guerrillas who use often hefty ransoms to help bankroll an uprising that has taken more than 35,000 lives since 1990.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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