Colombia rebels end power plant siege, free hostages
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Armed guerrillas have ended a five-day
occupation of a hydroelectric plant on Saturday, releasing 145 hostages
and
retreating into nearby mountains, power officials said.
"All of the people who were held have been freed," Liliana Velasquez, a
spokeswoman for the Pacific Energy Company, told The Associated Press
by telephone Saturday evening.
Velasquez said the rebels pulled out of the Anchiclaya power plant after
the
company pledged it would monitor labor conditions there and conduct
public meetings to discuss electricity rates in the western region it serves.
She said the guerrillas had left the facility in "perfect condition."
The accord ends an armed occupation begun Tuesday by a unit of the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Led by a ski-masked
commander, about 60 rebels from the country's largest insurgent group took
over the power plant near the western port of Buenaventura without firing
a shot.
The rebels initially demanded a 30 percent reduction in electricity rates,
but apparently settled for less. They had previously freed 23 hostages
on
Friday.
The region's power supply was not affected and there was no reported
violence.
The government criticized the rebel action, but did not send security forces
to counter it.
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