CNN
September 4, 1999
 

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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