Colombia's rebels 'kidnap eight' in Chocó

The Colombian government has accused the country's second-
largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), of
kidnapping eight people in an isolated region.

The gunmen forced the hostages into a boat and took them deep
into the jungle in the western Chocó department, the army said.
A huge rescue operation is underway.

Peace negotiations with the ELN started in February and another
round of talks is due to begin in Ecuador next week.

The government demands that the rebels stop kidnapping people,
as they frequently do for financial gain.

Details are still unclear about Sunday's incident, which
happened in a rural area of the town of Nóvita, 540km (335 miles) west of
the capital, Bogotá.

The hostages were seven men and a woman, all of them
youngsters, local media report.

Colombia's Defence Minister, Luis Carlos Villegas, said 500
soldiers would be deployed to the region, in addition to the 6,300
men already in the area, a statement said (in Spanish).

The country's chief negotiator, Juan Camilo Restrepo, said on
Twitter that the kidnapping "hamper enormously" the negotiations
with the ELN.

The talks with the group follow a peace agreement between the
government and Colombia's largest rebel group, the Farc, last
year.



The ELN rebels

The guerrilla group was founded in 1964 with the stated aim
of fighting Colombia's unequal distribution of land and riches,
inspired by the Cuban revolution of 1959

Over the decades, the group has attacked large landholders
and multinational companies, and repeatedly blown up oil
pipelines

To finance itself it has resorted to extortion, kidnappings and
drug trafficking

It has been strongest in rural areas