BOGOTA - Colombia's main right-wing paramilitary force said yesterday that a high-profile kidnapping it carried out earlier this week was part of a bid to halt the government's "progressive surrender" to Marxist rebels.
Carlos Castano, the ultrarightist paramilitary warlord, said the seizure of Guillermo Leon Valencia Cossio, the brother of one of the government's chief representatives in peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was aimed at forcing President Andres Pastrana into a much tougher stance with the rebel army.