Venezuela arrested a former Colombian farming minister wanted in his home country on charges of kidnapping a political rival and accused of links to right-wing military groups, state television said today.
Alvaro Araujo, who is also a former senator, was captured in western Venezuela yesterday and transferred to Caracas, Venezuelan media said. Colombia may seek his extradition.
Mr Araujo is the father of Maria Consuelo Araujo, who quit as Colombia's foreign minister last year when her brother was jailed on charges of using right-wing paramilitary thugs to intimidate voters.
The Araujo political organisation supported the election campaigns of President Alvaro Uribe, who is hugely popular for weakening the Andean nation's guerrilla armies.
Araujo is wanted by police for kidnapping a political rival of the family.
Many officials in Mr Uribe's US-backed government are tangled up in scandals related to paramilitary or drug trafficking activity, including the justice minister, who is under pressure to resign over charges his brother colluded with smugglers.
Mr Uribe's family is itself embroiled in the "para-politics" scandals.
His cousin and close political ally Mario Uribe is being investigated along with about 60 other lawmakers for their dealings with drug-smuggling paramilitary militias organised in the 1980s to help rich Colombians fight Marxist guerrillas.
Reuters