Álvaro Uribe, Colombia’s president, told on television that “miserably, Cuellar was beheaded and killed by his captors,” and according to his criteria “they belong to the narco-terrorist group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)”
Officials in Colombia say the provincial governor who was kidnapped by suspected leftist rebels has been found dead in southern Caqueta province.
Caqueta state Gov. Luis Francisco Cuellar’s body was found close to the state capital of Florencia, where he was kidnapped late Monday, government officials confirmed late Tuesday. Mr. Cuellar, who had been kidnapped four times during his life for ransom, would have turned 69 years old on Tuesday.
At least 2,000 police and soldiers were sent into the southern jungle highlands outside Florencia to search for Cuellar, and the body was found less than 24 hours after the kidnapping. The pickup truck the rebels had used to abduct Cuellar was also found, abandoned and burnt.
“The rebels wearing military uniforms who kidnapped Cuellar looked like rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC),” Endo said earlier.
“We can’t keep waiting for the terrorists’ caprice. It is time to play hard to promote the rescue of hostages by military force,” Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said in a statement Tuesday.
