Hostage situation ends as rural Colombia frees 66 soldiers

Rural Colombians on Monday freed 66 soldiers they had been holding hostage since the weekend, allegedly at the behest of a guerrilla group, the government of the South American country said.

The soldiers were taken on Saturday along with about 40 others who managed to get away, an army source told AFP.

The remaining 66 were held by about 650 residents in rural south Colombia, mayor Willy Rodriguez of the nearby town San Jose del Guaviare told Caracol Radio.

Later Monday, the defense ministry announced on X that the last soldiers had been “freed” after being held against their will for 72 hours.

The townspeople are thought to have acted under the influence of dissidents of the FARC guerrilla movement.

Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez has accused the Jorge Suarez Briceno rebel group as being behind what he described as a “kidnapping.”

The group is in peace negotiations with the government, and agreed to a bilateral ceasefire in October last year.

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Velasquez warned over the weekend that the hostage-taking put the truce at risk.

Despite a 2016 peace deal that led to the disarmament of the FARC, fighting between the security forces, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs has continued.

Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, has sought to end the six-decade internal conflict by negotiating with several armed groups since taking office in August 2022.

The toll of the conflict is estimated at 9.5 million people displaced, murdered, kidnapped or missing.