Colombia says soldiers kill six rebels in clashes

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BOGOTA, June 20 (Reuters) – Colombian troops killed six Marxist guerrillas on Sunday in the center of the Andean nation while millions of voters went to the polls to elect President Alvaro Uribe’s successor, the army said.

Violence has declined since Uribe launched a U.S.-backed military offensive against leftist rebels in 2002, but fighting and bombings remain common in Latin America’s No. 4 oil producer, which is struggling to shake off a four-decade rebellion.

An army spokesman said soldiers clashed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Meta province, east of the capital Bogota, killing six rebels.

Uribe steps down in August after two terms marked by a hard-line stance against guerrillas, drug barons and paramilitaries. Improved security has drawn increasing foreign investment in the country’s oil and mining sectors.

Former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos and independent Antanas Mockus faced off on Sunday to take over from the popular incumbent in an election run-off with Santos holding a commanding lead in opinion polls. [ID:nN20126923] (Reporting by Monica Garcia and Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Jack Kimball, Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Colombians vote, Santos seen winning presidency

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BOGOTA, June 20 (Reuters) – Colombians will vote on Sunday in a presidential run-off that former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos was expected to win after vowing to continue the incumbent president’s policies on security and the economy.

Santos easily won the first round in May and holds a big lead in opinion polls over ex-Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus, a former mathematics professor who issued a challenge to traditional parties with a call for cleaner government.

President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative U.S. ally, steps down in August after battering leftist rebels who once controlled large parts of Latin America’s No. 4 oil producer, now seen as an attractive destination for foreign investment.

“Santos will guarantee strong policy continuity over the next four years with a solid congressional base of support to start with, although governance could prove more challenging over time,” said Eurasia Group analyst Patrick Esteruelas.

Support for Santos has continued to grow since he almost beat Mockus outright in the first round, and the latest Invamer-Gallup opinion poll said he could win 66.5 percent of votes, compared with 27.4 percent for Mockus.

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Investors broadly view a victory by Santos as a continuation of Uribe’s security and pro-business policies, and say a Santos win will maintain favorable support in the short term for the peso currency COP=RR and local TES bonds.

Whoever wins on Sunday will inherit a much safer country than when Uribe came to power in 2002, but will have to tackle the region’s highest unemployment rate, a stubborn fiscal deficit and tensions with neighboring Venezuela, where a trade dispute is weighing on Colombia’s economic recovery.

Nearly half of 30 million eligible voters cast ballots in the May 30 first round, but analysts say that figure could drop by as much as 10 percent because of Santos’s lead and the competing attraction of World Cup soccer matches.

Once written off as a failing state, Colombia has seen its long war ebb as Uribe used billions of dollars of aid from Washington to send soldiers backed by helicopters and better military intelligence to drive back rebels.

With the economy pulling back from the global crisis, polls show voters are less concerned about security, more concerned with jobs and healthcare, and weary over human rights and graft scandals that tarnished Uribe’s second term.

“The differences between Santos and Mockus are only adjective, secondary, and individualist. In essence, both characters embody the same lost policy: haggard Uribismo,” said Esteban Carlos Mejia, a columnist for the El Espectador paper. (Editing by Jack Kimball and Xavier Briand)

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Colombia’s Santos favored for runoff

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Former Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos is favored to win a June run-off after a solid victory in a first round presidential vote that consolidated his position as heir to the popular incumbent.

World

Santos won a strong lead on Sunday against former Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus, but fell just shy of the votes needed for an outright victory to succeed President Alvaro Uribe, a U.S. ally praised for his war on leftist rebels.

Jobs, the economic recovery and Colombia’s tense relations with neighboring Venezuela will be key issues now during the run-off when Santos will seek to distance himself from scandals in Uribe’s government that helped fuel support for Mockus.

Santos, the scion of a wealthy Bogota family, won 47 percent of the votes against Mockus with 22 percent on Sunday, leaving him with a clear advantage when the two men compete in the June 20 second round run-off.

“The Colombian people didn’t want to take a leap into the dark and they showed it with this election,” Santos told local Caracol radio, calling for other parties to join him in an alliance for the second round.

Colombia’s peso and local TES bonds strengthened after Santos’ victory, as investors applauded the win by a candidate seen as a clear guardian of Uribe’s tough security line and pro-market policies.

The peso rose 0.80 percent in next-day trading to 1,957 pesos against the dollar compared with Friday’s close. Benchmark July 2020 TES bond yields closed at 7.933 percent against 8.107 percent on Friday.

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Santos benefited from a fall in rebel violence, increased investment and strong rural support to finish far ahead of Mockus, despite polls before the vote showing them tied.

But Mockus managed to tap into frustration over issues such as joblessness, healthcare, and voter weariness over human rights and graft scandals that tarnished Uribe’s second term. Uribe is banned by the constitution from seeking a third term.

“There is also a strong sense in Colombia that Uribe left many issues unaddressed,” said Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia. “The weight of those unaddressed challenges should prod Santos to go beyond providing a continuity of Uribe.”

Mockus had surged in polls before the election to tie with Santos with a message of clean government. But Santos revamped his campaign to focus on jobs and the economy and also benefited from gaffes by Mockus during presidential debates.

Polls may have underestimated support for Santos in rural areas, which have benefited the most from Uribe’s security drive against Marxist FARC guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and cocaine lords.

Investors applauded Santos’ wide margin as the U.S.- and British-educated former finance minister is seen as sticking closer to Uribe’s stances on regulation, taxes and fiscal restraint than Mockus.

But a Santos victory in June will test ties with Venezuela where socialist President Hugo Chavez has called the candidate a “threat” in exchanges during a diplomatic dispute that has battered trade between the Andean neighbors.

Santos is seen by Wall Street as better placed to manage Congress, where his U Party has a strong representation. Mockus’ Green party has few seats and he would struggle to push through any ambitious reforms.

Uribe’s U Party, headed by Santos, is the strongest bloc in the Congress and is a former ally with Cambio Radical, whose candidate German Vargas Lleras came third in Sunday’s vote with just over 10 percent of the votes.

While Mockus has flirted with an alliance with the leftist Democratic Pole Party or PDA, he risks alienating moderate Uribe supporters who distrust Colombia’s political left because of its association with past guerrilla movements.

“This would be a major gamble,” said Christian Voelkel, a IHS Global Insight analyst. “An alliance with the PDA, parts of which belong to the unreconstructed political left, would almost certainly alienate crucially needed centrist voters.”

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel, Nelson Bocanegra and Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota, Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Colombia’s Santos win boon for Wall St and Chavez?

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Conservative Juan Manuel Santos is well placed to win Colombia’s presidency after a first electoral round victory that pleased investors but which may also help a foe, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.

World

Santos, a Harvard and LSE-trained economist was only around three percentage points short of the majority needed to win the election outright on Sunday, and his 25 point lead will make it very difficult for his rival Antanas Mockus to catch up. The two face off in a June 20 runoff.

Sunday’s result is a ratification of the tough security and pro-business policies of staunch U.S. ally President Alvaro Uribe in Latin America’s third most populous country and was received well by investors.

A victory in June for the wealthy scion of Bogota’s political elites will likely inflame already high tensions with neighboring Venezuela — possibly benefiting Chavez who is beset by economic woes and often thrives on external conflict.

“I doubt Chavez is unhappy with this result. Mockus would have thrown him off balance,” said Michael Shifter, an analyst with Washington think-tank Inter-American Dialogue.

Former Defense Minister Santos has for years verbally sparred with the socialist leader, who is beefing up his armed forces. Officials have said Colombia’s military needs to prepare itself for an “external threat.

A Santos presidency would do nothing to reduce fears of a border clash — although war in the region is unlikely.

A seasoned warrior of Colombia’s internal conflict, Santos, 58, is the anointed heir to Uribe, who cleared much of the country of leftist rebels and multiplied investment five-fold with security and low taxes in eight years in office.

The peso currency and benchmark TES bonds firmed on Monday, while the country’s risk rating on JPMorgan’s EMBI Plus index fell 8 points to 231 points.

“Now there is much more certainty about what might happen and what lies in store for the country. As well economic matters, the teams are well regarded. That generates stability and confidence recovers,” said Alexander Cardenas, director of economic research at Colombian brokerage Acciones and Valores.

Mockus, an eccentric two-time former Bogota mayor, is also seen as a steady economic hand but is a relative unknown and has little sway in Congress since his Green Party has few seats — raising governability questions.

“OIL AND WATER”

The son of one of the country’s most influential families who for years owned top newspaper El Tiempo, Santos proved his steel in the fight against FARC guerrillas, overseeing the dramatic rescue of hostages and a 2008 bombing raid that killed the insurgents’ No. 2 commander.

That raid, on a rebel camp in neighbor Ecuador, briefly raised the specter of war in the Andean region. Relations with Venezuela never fully recovered and Chavez repeatedly called Santos a danger to Latin America during the election campaign.

Santos says he and Chavez are like “oil and water,” and although both men say they are willing to talk, Chavez also says he would struggle to have normal ties with Santos.

Venezuela’s leader is highly unpopular in Colombia and his remarks were always likely to increase support for Santos, although some analysts attributed a surge in Mockus’ ratings in April to hopes for less conflict.

“In the end the reverse happened, it strengthened Santos,” former Colombian Vice President Humberto de La Calle said on TV station RCN.

Some Chavez allies have said in private they would prefer Santos to become president because Mockus is an unknown quality. The conservative Santos offers a clear target for Chavez, who often attacks what he terms as venal elites in his own country.

Chavez rose to international prominence with fierce criticism of former U.S. President George W. Bush. Since Bush left office, Chavez has focused his wrath on Uribe, whom he accuses of conspiring with Washington to topple him.

“With Santos, Chavez can continue to play his favorite game,” Shifter said. “Chavez lost Bush and will soon lose Uribe, but at least he’ll have Santos as a foil.”

(Additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, editing by Alan Elsner)

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UPDATE 3-Colombia’s Santos favored for runoff, markets up

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BOGOTA, May 31 (Reuters) – Former Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos is favored to win a June run-off after a solid victory in a first round presidential vote that consolidated his position as heir to the popular incumbent.

Santos won a strong lead on Sunday against former Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus, but fell just shy of the votes needed for an outright victory to succeed President Alvaro Uribe, a U.S. ally praised for his war on leftist rebels.

Jobs, the economic recovery and Colombia’s tense relations with neighboring Venezuela will be key issues now during the run-off when Santos will seek to distance himself from scandals in Uribe’s government that helped fuel support for Mockus.

Santos, the scion of a wealthy Bogota family, won 47 percent of the votes against Mockus with 22 percent on Sunday, leaving him with a clear advantage when the two men compete in the June 20 second round run-off.

“The Colombian people didn’t want to take a leap into the dark and they showed it with this election,” Santos told local Caracol radio, calling for other parties to join him in an alliance for the second round.

Colombia’s peso COP=RR and local TES bonds strengthened after Santos’ victory, as investors applauded the win by a candidate seen as a clear guardian of Uribe’s tough security line and pro-market policies. [ID:nN31252047]

The peso rose 0.80 percent in next-day trading to 1,957 pesos against the dollar compared with Friday’s close. Benchmark July 2020 TES bond TFIT15240720 yields closed at 7.933 percent against 8.107 percent on Friday.

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MORE REGIONAL TENSIONS

Santos benefited from a fall in rebel violence, increased investment and strong rural support to finish far ahead of Mockus, despite polls before the vote showing them tied.

But Mockus managed to tap into frustration over issues such as joblessness, healthcare, and voter weariness over human rights and graft scandals that tarnished Uribe’s second term. Uribe is banned by the constitution from seeking a third term.

“There is also a strong sense in Colombia that Uribe left many issues unaddressed,” said Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia. “The weight of those unaddressed challenges should prod Santos to go beyond providing a continuity of Uribe.”

Mockus had surged in polls before the election to tie with Santos with a message of clean government. But Santos revamped his campaign to focus on jobs and the economy and also benefited from gaffes by Mockus during presidential debates.

Polls may have underestimated support for Santos in rural areas, which have benefited the most from Uribe’s security drive against Marxist FARC guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and cocaine lords.

Investors applauded Santos’ wide margin as the U.S.- and British-educated former finance minister is seen as sticking closer to Uribe’s stances on regulation, taxes and fiscal restraint than Mockus.

But a Santos victory in June will test ties with Venezuela where socialist President Hugo Chavez has called the candidate a “threat” in exchanges during a diplomatic dispute that has battered trade between the Andean neighbors.

Santos is seen by Wall Street as better placed to manage Congress, where his U Party has a strong representation. Mockus’ Green party has few seats and he would struggle to push through any ambitious reforms.

Uribe’s U Party, headed by Santos, is the strongest bloc in the Congress and is a former ally with Cambio Radical, whose candidate German Vargas Lleras came third in Sunday’s vote with just over 10 percent of the votes.

While Mockus has flirted with an alliance with the leftist Democratic Pole Party or PDA, he risks alienating moderate Uribe supporters who distrust Colombia’s political left because of its association with past guerrilla movements.

“This would be a major gamble,” said Christian Voelkel, a IHS Global Insight analyst. “An alliance with the PDA, parts of which belong to the unreconstructed political left, would almost certainly alienate crucially needed centrist voters.”

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel, Nelson Bocanegra and Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota, Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Carbomb kills 6 in Colombian port town

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A car bomb exploded in the Colombian port town of Buenaventura on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding more than 30 in an attack the military suspected was carried out by FARC guerrillas.

The blast destroyed part of the local office of the attorney general in Buenaventura, the country’s largest port that handles half of the country’s coffee exports but is also a major drug trafficking route to the Pacific coast.

Local television images from the city showed wrecked taxis and destroyed store fronts minutes after the blast as residents carried wounded people to hospitals.

“Unfortunately there are six dead,” said Juan Carlos Abadia, governor of Valle del Cauca State where the city is located. “This is an attempt to destabilize and to generate an atmosphere of fear and chaos.”

Armed Forces commander General Freddy Padilla said guerrillas from the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, were suspected in the bombing. But the country’s attorney general said the blast could have been carried out by drug traffickers in retaliation for his office’s investigations.

Violence, bombings and kidnapping from Colombia’s long war has ebbed since President Alvaro Uribe first came to power in 2002 and sent troops to drive back leftist rebels, paramilitaries and cocaine traffickers.

But rebels are still a force in rural areas where they use ambushes, hit-and-run attacks and homemade landmines to harry army and police patrols. The FARC is deeply engaged in drug trafficking and extortion.

The coast near Buenaventura is a key cocaine smuggling point and rebel militias have often bombed and ambushed army and police patrols in the city.

Uribe is popular for his U.S.-backed security drive and he steps down this year after two terms in office. Colombians go to the polls in May to vote for a new president and most candidates are promising to maintain his security policies.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey, Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Colombian rebels promise to release longest-held hostage

April 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Bogota – Leftist rebels in Colombia said Thursday they will soon release the hostage they have been holding longest, a soldier kidnapped more than 11 years ago.

Corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo was abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on December 21, 1997 in an attack on an army communications base on Mount Patascoy.

The rebels seized several members of the military during the raid in the south-west region of Narino, but only Moncayo and Jose Libio Martinez remain in captivity.

FARC said the decision to release the corporal was in response to requests from presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, among others.

The rebels further acknowledged the efforts of the hostage’s father, Gustavo Moncayo, who has led an as yet unsuccessful campaign to get the Colombian government to agree to an exchange of imprisoned rebels for hostages held by FARC.

In mid-2007, the elder Moncayo, a schoolteacher, walked for days from his native Sandona, in Narino, to the Colombian capital Bogota. Last year, he walked from Bogota to the Venezuelan capital Caracas, to thank Chavez for his efforts to secure the release of several hostages.

“The joy is too much, it’s huge,” the teacher said on hearing the news that his son was to be released. “There has to be a negotiated, political way out (of the conflict),” Moncayo said.

FARC is currently holding 22 military and police officers, whom they want to exchange for 500 imprisoned rebels. Last year, their most high-profile hostage, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, was rescued in a secret service operation. (dpa)

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FEATURE-Colombian Indians plead for water preservation

April 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

SUMAPAZ, Colombia, April 15 (Reuters) – Facing a lake covered by low-lying clouds, spiritual leader Arwa Viku burns leaves hoping that the smoke will carry his message, his voice mixing with the sound of waves lapping the grass-lined shore.

Here in mountainous central Colombia, Viku’s Arhuaca Indian tribe is concerned that the country’s water supply is being threatened by an expanding unregulated agricultural sector.

They also worry about a four-decade-old guerrilla war in which leftist rebels plant landmines and military counterstrikes disrupt the ecosystem. Viku looks up at the smoke and prays for a restoration of the water supply.

The ritual is focused on this country’s “paramos”, or flat zones found on mountain ranges. The areas, located at heights over 9,800 feet (3,000 m), are filled with grass, shrubs and other vegetation that absorb water and feed Colombia’s rivers.

“More than half the planet has already been destroyed,” the mustachioed Viku says, his eyes peering out from under his traditional white conical hat.

“Our Mother earth has been violated and mistreated. So please help us to take care of what is left. Besides being good to us every day, the planet gives us warnings and makes more demands on us, because we’ve turned against it,” he added.

Colombia is known for its ample supplies of fresh water. But the war — which began in the 1960s with the birth of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebel movement — has combined with global warming to damage the environment.

The chemical-heavy process of making the cocaine that finances the FARC has also taken its toll on Colombia’s ecosystems. A U.S.-backed security campaign has pushed the guerrillas into remote rural areas, where violence, cocaine production and related environmental damage goes unchecked.

Viku and a handful of other Arhuaca members scratch stones together, sparking fire to burn dried leaves and send smoke from this paramo to others around the country where water supplies are at risk. They wear white pants and robes cinched at the waist by decorated belts.

“We sing to the water because it is alive, it hears, it has feelings. It is a living thing,” female tribe member Ati Quigua told Reuters. “We are drops from the same river, part of the same water cycle.”

The paramos are crucial to maintaining the Magdalena River, which, like the Mississippi in the United States, cuts through the heart of the country. They also feed the Orinoco River, which connects Colombia to neighboring Venezuela and Brazil.

State environmental official Emilio Rodriguez agrees that the situation in the paramos is “worrying”, considering that they are a key water source for capital city Bogota.

“A lot of the problems (confronting the paramos) are structural problems having to do with land care and colonizers who arrive in nearby areas, some of which are protected,” Rodriguez said.

Poor Colombians, some displaced by war, regularly arrive in national parks looking for fertile land to build subsistence farms, larger plantations and cattle ranches. These illegal operations go unregulated and can do extensive environmental damage.

“This area should be declared sacred territory, a water sanctuary,” Quigua said. (Reporting by Javier Mozzo, writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Colombian Indians plead for water preservation

April 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

UMAPAZ, Colombia (Reuters) – Facing a lake covered by low-lying clouds, spiritual leader Arwa Viku burns leaves hoping that the smoke will carry his message, his voice mixing with the sound of waves lapping the grass-lined shore.

Here in mountainous central Colombia, Viku’s Arhuaca Indian tribe is concerned that the country’s water supply is being threatened by an expanding unregulated agricultural sector.

They also worry about a four-decade-old guerrilla war in which leftist rebels plant landmines and military counterstrikes disrupt the ecosystem. Viku looks up at the smoke and prays for a restoration of the water supply.

The ritual is focused on this country’s “paramos”, or flat zones found on mountain ranges. The areas, located at heights over 9,800 feet, are filled with grass, shrubs and other vegetation that absorb water and feed Colombia’s rivers.

“More than half the planet has already been destroyed,” the mustachioed Viku says, his eyes peering out from under his traditional white conical hat.

“Our Mother earth has been violated and mistreated. So please help us to take care of what is left. Besides being good to us every day, the planet gives us warnings and makes more demands on us, because we’ve turned against it,” he added.

Colombia is known for its ample supplies of fresh water. But the war — which began in the 1960s with the birth of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebel movement — has combined with global warming to damage the environment.

The chemical-heavy process of making the cocaine that finances the FARC has also taken its toll on Colombia’s ecosystems. A U.S.-backed security campaign has pushed the guerrillas into remote rural areas, where violence, cocaine production and related environmental damage goes unchecked.

Viku and a handful of other Arhuaca members scratch stones together, sparking fire to burn dried leaves and send smoke from this paramo to others around the country where water supplies are at risk. They wear white pants and robes cinched at the waist by decorated belts.

“We sing to the water because it is alive, it hears, it has feelings. It is a living thing,” female tribe member Ati Quigua told Reuters. “We are drops from the same river, part of the same water cycle.”

The paramos are crucial to maintaining the Magdalena River, which, like the Mississippi in the United States, cuts through the heart of the country. They also feed the Orinoco River, which connects Colombia to neighboring Venezuela and Brazil.

State environmental official Emilio Rodriguez agrees that the situation in the paramos is “worrying”, considering that they are a key water source for capital city Bogota.

“A lot of the problems (confronting the paramos) are structural problems having to do with land care and colonizers who arrive in nearby areas, some of which are protected,” Rodriguez said.

Poor Colombians, some displaced by war, regularly arrive in national parks looking for fertile land to build subsistence farms, larger plantations and cattle ranches. These illegal operations go unregulated and can do extensive environmental damage.

“This area should be declared sacred territory, a water sanctuary,” Quigua said.

(Reporting by Javier Mozzo, writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Peruvian rebels kill 13 troops in coca region

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

LIMA, April 11 (Reuters) – Suspected leftist rebels killed 13 troops in two ambushes in a mountainous region of Peru where security forces are fighting cocaine traffickers, the government said on Saturday.

Defense Minister Antero Flores said both attacks took place on Thursday in Ayacucho province, a coca-growing area and the birthplace of the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group.

Flores told a news conference the rebels used grenades and dynamite to attack army patrols as they passed. In the first attack one soldier was killed, while 12 troops died in a second ambush.

The attacks bring to 11 the number of assaults on security services by suspected Shining Path rebels since the start of the year.

Peru’s government says the Shining Path has all but abandoned its fight from leftist ideological in favor of running drugs in Peru, the world’s No. 2 cocaine producer.

The rebel group led a nearly two-decade rebellion until its leadership was captured and it collapsed in the early 1990s. But some members of the group are still active, especially in the country’s main coca-farming regions.

Some government officials have said an upswing in violence stems from eradication efforts and the growing influence of Mexican drug cartels that buy cocaine in Peru.

Like his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, Peruvian President Alan Garcia receives anti-drug money from the United States and supports programs to eradicate coca fields. (Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Helen Popper, editing by Todd Eastham)

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Swedish hostage released by leftist rebels in Colombia

March 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Stockholm – A Swedish national was in “good spirits” following his release by leftist rebels in Colombia after almost two years in captivity, a Swedish diplomat said Wednesday.

Roland Larsson, 69, was abducted in May 2007 by members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) from his home in the province of Cordoba some 350 kilometres north of the capital, Bogota.

Sweden’s ambassador to Colombia, Lena Nordstrom, told Swedish television news that Larsson was “in relatively good health” and “good spirits” at a hospital in the town of Monteria.

Larsson was reported to have had a stroke while held by the rebels.

His son Tommy Larsson expressed “extreme relief” over his father’s release after a brief telephone conversation with him.

Swedish radio news reported that the Colombian security service DAS was contacted Tuesday by anonymous sources and a rendezvous was organized in northern Colombia for the handover of Larsson.

The report said no ransom had been paid for Larsson’s release. Some earlier reports alleged FARC had wanted 5 million dollars. (dpa)

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