BOGOTA, Colombia -- (AP) -- Leftist rebels freed a prominent Colombian
senator after he promised he would read a guerrilla message in Congress
that
denounces alleged government ties to paramilitary groups.
Sen. Carlos Espinoza was released Sunday in the northern state of Cesar
to a
commission headed by the deputy interior minister, Jorge Mario Eastman,
according to a jailed spokesman for the rebel National Liberation Army
(ELN).
Espinoza told the Radionet network that he would read a message from the
ELN,
the country's No. 2 rebel group, in Congress today that accuses the federal
government of backing paramilitary groups.
International human rights groups, foreign diplomats and Colombian prosecutors
contend that some in the military have actively supported right-wing death
squads.
On Saturday, the ELN released seven mayors it had kidnapped for periods
of up
to about a month. The mayors were all from towns in the northern state
of
Antioquia where the rebels claim the local administrations are plagued
by
corruption.
Espinoza was seized Aug. 1 in a rebel attempt to pressure the government
to find a
solution for the violence in northern Colombia that has created more than
10,000
refugees in recent months.
Most of the refugees have gathered in the oil-producing city of Barrancabermeja
on the Magdalena river, and the ELN has demanded that they be guaranteed
safe
passage back home and be given economic aid.
There was no immediate word on whether an agreement was reached on the
refugees, with whom Eastman has been negotiating for weeks.
The rebels blame the refugee problem on landowner-backed paramilitary militias,
which have killed scores of alleged rebel sympathizers in the north this
year.
Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald