Bogota - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos suspended peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels following the kidnapping of an army general, throwing into crisis the nation's efforts to end 50 years of war.
General Ruben Dario Alzate, who heads the Titan task force in the Pacific department of Choco, was captured on Sunday afternoon by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), along with another military official and a civilian.
“Tomorrow negotiators were to travel to another round of talks in Havana,” Santos said early on Monday.
“I will tell them not to go and that the talks are suspended until these people are released.”
“We will be attentive in the next 24 hours to the evolution of these incidents,” Santos said.
Alzate was captured after disembarking from a boat on a river near the city of Quibdo during a visit to an energy project, Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said.
Another official and a lawyer travelling on the boat were also captured, although a soldier at the wheel of the launch managed to escape and inform the authorities.
Santos had publicly warned the group that it risked jeopardising the peace process after the abduction of two soldiers last week and continued attacks on infrastructure.
The rebel group has stopped all kidnapping for ransom but maintains that military personnel are fair targets, given that no ceasefire has been called.
FARC leaders in Havana have occasionally disassociated themselves from violent attacks carried out by lower-ranks in Colombia, raising the question of whether the high command could defuse tensions by securing the general's release.
The FARC and government negotiators have reached partial agreement on three of the five points of the agenda at the talks, which began in November 2012, raising hopes that the bloody conflict was approaching an end. - Reuters