By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia—According to Colombian officials, all but one of 23 abducted oil workers have been released by leftist rebel soldiers.  The workers are Colombian contractors who were taken against their will on Monday while working in an isolated jungle area.  They had been employed by a Canadian oil company named Talisman Energy.  The one remaining oil worker is still being held by the rebels, who are suspected guerrillas from the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).  Colombian authorities are concerned that the last hostage is being kept for use later as a human shield.

Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera reported that the kidnapped workers were released early on Tuesday morning.  They had been taken captive the previous day while searching for crude in Vichada, an eastern province of the country.  Reports have concluded that the FARC unit that probably abducted the workers was relatively small and that the workers were kidnapped from their own camp.

President Manuel Santos has initiated a military operation in order to combat kidnappings in Colombia.  In the mission, codenamed Minotaur, the Colombian army, air force, and marines have been searching Vichada province in hopes of rescuing the final hostage.  President Santos considers this operation strong evidence that his military will soon triumph over hostage takers.  “We are not going to rest until all hostages are freed and the country is free of kidnapping,” Santos vowed.  He speculated that the FARC rebels were holding onto the last hostage to use as a human shield to repel military raids.

Talisman Energy has announced that each of the contractors was working for a firm called South American Exploration that conducts seismic studies in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.  The company also reported that all of the hostages taken on Monday were Colombian citizens and the majority of them were members of local indigenous groups.

For more information, please see:

Washington Post-22 abducted oil workers freed in Colombia-8 March 2011

Guardian-Colombian troops rescue 22 kidnapped oil workers-8 March 2011

Wall Street Journal-Colombia Rebels Free 22 Oil Workers-8 March 2011