Quito - Ten foreign oil workers were kidnapped on Thursday from an oil field in Ecuador's Amazon jungle by an armed group, but Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrilla organisation denied it was responsible.
Ecuador's Armed Forces had said in a statement that armed men identifying themselves as members of the Communist-led Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) took 10 foreigners captive early on Thursday and flew them in a helicopter across Ecuador's northern border into Colombia. A FARC leader, Mr Joaquin Gomez, denied that the group had played a role in the kidnapping and instead suggested the US Central Intelligence Agency was trying to drum up support for Colombia's US-backed $7.5 billion anti-drug and insurgency effort called Plan Colombia.