BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Unidentified gunmen assassinated a former
                 congressman Wednesday after kidnapping him the night before, police said.

                 Eliecer Meneses, abducted and slain in northern Cesar state, is the seventh current
                 or former national lawmaker killed in the past year.

                 The assassination "weakens Colombian democracy even further," said Guillermo
                 Gaviria, president of Colombia's House of Representatives.

                 Meneses, 53, and his brother were kidnapped Tuesday from a rural estate in the
                 town of Pailitas, state police said. His body was found Wednesday with two
                 gunshots to the head. The brother was freed.

                 A member of the opposition Liberal Party, Meneses lost a re-election bid in 1998.
                 He had served on a congressional committee that exonerated then-President Ernesto
                 Samper of charges that his campaign took money from drug traffickers.

                 On Sunday, a right-wing paramilitary group claimed responsibility for the
                 assassinations of two congressmen earlier this month, both from the Liberal Party.
                 The so-called United Self-Defense Forces, or AUC, accused the lawmakers of
                 being guerrilla sympathizers.

                 The attacks on lawmakers have prompted concern that Colombia's 37-year conflict
                 has entered an even more vicious phase. Some 3,500 people die annually in the war,
                 mostly civilians killed by guerrillas or paramilitaries.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.