Bogota - Suspected left-wing Colombian rebels kidnapped up to 92 workers from the US oil firm, Occidental Petroleum Corp, officials said yesterday.
Police and army officials said the Occidental employees were abducted late on Monday while cutting across the Colombian jungle in a convoy from the Cano Limon oil field, located in the eastern province of Arauca.
Gen Carlos Lemos said Colombia's second-largest rebel force, the National Liberation Army (ELN), was suspected of orchestrating the abduction. In Bogota, Colombia's government-appointed ombudsman accused far-right militias yesterday of plunging the country into "barbarism" after gunmen slaughtered 40 peasants during an Easter raid, torturing some and slicing one woman open with a chain saw.
Gunmen of the outlawed Self-Defence Forces of Colombia stormed the remote town of Naya in southern Cauca Province and killed the civilians because they suspected them of aiding leftist rebels.