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AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Saturday, 3 July 1999 Colombian army captures rebel leader suspected in hijacking ----------------------------- BOGOTA -- The Colombian army captured a leader of the country's second-largest rebel group here Friday in connection with the April hijacking of a commercial airliner and the kidnapping of its passengers. Luis Galvis is part of the National Liberation Army's (ELN's) Central Command, the army said. He was captured in a neighborhood in the southern part of the city, where he may have been planning another kidnapping, said General Arcesio Barrera, commander of the 13th Brigade. "He is an important man in this organization, and I believe his capture is an important strike at this group," Barrera told reporters. Galvis is the "financial chief and also the ideological leader of the central and northeastern fronts," Barrera said. Galvis appeared calm when he was shown to reporters. He only broke his silence to answer a question about his role in ELN, saying "they're only suspicions" and his arrest was "a mistake." Barrera said he was investigating the possibility that Galvis was in Bogota to collect ransoms demanded by ELN for the release of 65 hostages it is holding in the north and southeast of Colombia. The leftist guerrillas still hold 16 passengers from the airplane it hijacked on April 12 and 39 people kidnapped from a Roman Catholic Church on May 30. ELN has used the hostages to pressure the government into opening a peace process with them. Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse |
