COLOMBIA: The search continued yesterday for a private plane carrying Colombia's Minister of Social Welfare, Dr Juan Luis Londono, which disappeared on Thursday afternoon. Deáglan de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent reports from Bogota
A helicopter searching the mountains of central Colombia was fired on, in a suspected rebel attack. The search aircraft was hit four times but was able to return safely to base and nobody was injured. The area in question is controlled by the guerrillas of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
Rescue teams battling fog and cold temperatures pleaded with the rebels to let them search for the aircraft. "We are asking illegal armed groups to allow us to continue the search for the aircraft. This is a humanitarian mission," Civil Aviation director Mr Juan Carlos Velez said.
The minister's plane had lost radio contact with the control tower after taking from from an airport in Girardot, 50 miles southwest of the Colombian capital. Dr Londono was accompanied by his secretary and two advisers. The pilot was the only crew member.
The plane took off in sunny weather and was due to cross an Andean mountain range, which is often covered with mist, on its way to the city of Popayan, 230 miles southwest of Bogota. Peasants in a mountainous area, 100 miles west of Bogota, reported that they heard an explosion.
Dr Londono (46), is President Alvaro Uribe's minister in charge of social welfare, which was created only last Wednesday out of a merger between two ministries - labour and health - which Dr Londono had also headed. He served as health minister from 1990-1994 under then President Cesar Gaviria.
He is also a former editor of a financial magazine and holds a Harvard Ph .D. in economics.