BOGOTA (Reuters) -- A senior Colombian Army officer was arrested on
                  Wednesday for his alleged involvement in the massacre of about 30 people
                  by a right-wing death squad in 1997, authorities said.

                  The officer, Lt. Col. Lino Sanchez Prado, was thought to be the
                  highest-ranking active duty member of Colombia's armed forces ever
                  arrested for alleged sponsorship or participation in one of the country's
                  ultra-right paramilitary groups.

                  Spokesmen for Prosecutor-General Alfonso Gomez said Sanchez Prado
                  was arrested on Wednesday afternoon at a military police barracks on the
                  west side of Bogota.

                  He was detained for questioning about his alleged role in an attack by more
                  than 100 paramilitary gunmen in the town of Mapiripan in eastern Meta
                  province in July 1997, the spokesmen said.

                  The gunmen killed at least 30 people, beheading some of their victims with
                  machetes and torturing others.

                  Carlos Castano, leader of Colombia's largest paramilitary group, claimed
                  responsibility for the attack in a subsequent interview with Reuters. But he
                  denied official claims that the victims were all civilians, saying they were
                  either Marxist rebels or their known sympathisers.

                  Two army sergeants were arrested for their alleged links to the same case
                  last year, but their role has not yet been publicly clarified.

                  Colombia's military has long denied charges by international human rights
                  groups which routinely accuse it of backing paramilitary groups that have
                  killed with impunity for more than a decade.

                  Colombia's leading Marxist guerrilla group broke off peace talks with the
                  government in January, claiming it has done nothing to halt alleged official
                  support for the paramilitaries and violence by the far right.

                  Sanchez Prado's arrest, which is sure to embarrass the army, may ultimately
                  prove to be part of a bid to get the peace talks back on track, political
                  analysts said.

                  Sanchez Prado was operations chief of the Army's 12th Brigade, in southern
                  Caqueta province, at the time the Mapiripan massacre was carried out,
                  according to the prosecutor general's office.

                  It did not elaborate on his alleged role in the massacre. But although
                  Caqueta shares a border with Meta, the 12th Brigade has no jurisdiction
                  over Meta.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.