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4TH BRIGADE LIBERATES DETAINED MOTORISTS

Date Reported: Wednesday, February 09, 2000
Incident Type: SECURITY
Country: ANTIOQUIA DEPARTMENT, COLOMBIA

Incident: Reuters and Colombian National Radio reported that 4th Brigade Army troops have freed the hundreds of people detained by leftist rebels blockading the Medellin-Bogota highway. Military officials said at least 1,200 people, travelling aboard some 400 cars, buses and trucks, were caught in the blockade. Many of the hostages, especially bus passengers, had been allowed to leave the area on foot after the initial takeover.

Early on the morning of 9 February, ELN fighters controlling the road faded back into mountains about 45 miles (75 km) south of Medellin. The rebels fled after skirmishing with a large contingent of troops backed by helicopter gunships dispatched to the area Tuesday evening. At least one soldier died in the fighting after stepping on an ELN planted landmine.

Authorities are entering the area with "extreme caution" according to an Armed Forces spokesman, since some civilians were reportedly used as human shields by the guerrillas. No hostages were believed to have been carried off by the rebel commandos responsible for the highway takeover, police and military officials added.

Gen. Eduardo Herrera, commander of the Fourth Army Brigade, said the highway siege had been orchestrated by ELN leaders jailed in a maximum security prison outside Medellin. Herrera added that the takeover was "a demented act by the ELN."

Local media speculated that the rebels staged the highway takeover as a diversionary tactic, so they could resume their attacks on Antioquia's power grid once army troops were moved back into the task of protecting motorists instead of energy infrastructure. The Antioquia power grid has come under attacks made to protest the planned privatisation of the state-run power generating company ISAGEN and the national power grid ISA. Attorney General Jaime Bernal, however, said that he beleived the ELN staged the blockade as part of a bid to win concessions from the government that could open the way toward peace talks.