Fighters from the National Liberation Army, or ELN, released the hostage --
                 identified as Glenn Hereggestard of California -- on Friday afternoon, said army
                 spokesman Capt. Luis Hernandez.

                 Hernandez said the ELN, the nation's second-largest rebel army, abducted the
                 29-year-old tourist Nov. 4 from a rural highway outside the town of San Luis in the
                 province of Antioquia. He was released in the neighboring village of San Francisco,
                 117 miles (190 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Bogota.

                 A U.S. Embassy official in Bogota confirmed that an American abducted by the
                 ELN had been released but said he could not identify the hostage.

                 The official said the hostage required no hospital treatment following his release. It
                 wasn't immediately clear if ransom had been paid.

                 Meanwhile Sunday, fighters from the nation's largest rebel army _ the
                 Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC -- kidnapped as many as 23
                 people in Antioquia after breaking into the hotel where they were staying, the army
                 said.

                 Dozens of rebels besieged the Marando Hotel outside the town of El Jardin -- 235
                 miles (380 kilometers) northwest of Bogota -- before dawn on Sunday, abducting
                 five guests and killing one man who refused to go, said Hernandez.

                 Hernandez said the rebels then kidnapped as many as 18 other guests who, in a
                 brazen rescue attempt, chased the guerrillas in their vehicles.

                 The rebels kidnap for political reasons and for ransoms to fund their insurgencies,
                 frequently netting their victims in roadblocks in a method known as "miracle
                 fishing."

                 The 37-year internal conflict, pitting two guerrilla groups against government
                 troops and a right-wing paramilitary army, kills an estimated 3,500 people every
                 year, mostly unarmed civilians.

                 The U.S. State Department has placed all three outlaw armies on its list of
                 worldwide terrorist organizations.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.