Worker kidnapped with UN group in Colombia

BOGOTA — An employee of the United Nations has been kidnapped by a dissident rebel faction in southern Colombia, marring a visit by the UN Security Council Thursday to show support for the South American nation’s recent peace deal.

President Juan Manuel Santos’ administration said that the Colombian national was working on a crop substitution project in the southern state of Guaviare when he was taken captive late Wednesday. Rodrigo Pardo, the president’s top aide for post-conflict planning, said the captors are a unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia who refused to lay down their weapons as part of a peace deal last year.

“These people live thanks to drugs and they want to continue living that way,” Pardo said, adding that the incident wouldn’t stop the government in its goal of eradicating cocaine crops in areas once dominated by the FARC.

A group of UN officials in coordination with Colombian authorities was attempting to negotiate the worker’s release.

“Obviously the situation when someone’s been kidnapped, the less we say the better,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said when asked about the hostage. “What I will tell you is that we’re obviously in touch with the Colombian authorities to help secure the person’s release.”

Santos met Thursday with ambassadors to the UN Security Council who are in the country to demonstrate their commitment to ending a half-century war that has caused more than 220,000 deaths and displaced nearly six million people

In January 2016, the Colombian government and the FARC jointly asked the United Nations to monitor any ceasefire and disarmament process — a rare request to the UN for help. Currently, some 450 UN observers are spread out over more than 20 rebel camps nationwide overseeing the laying down of weapons by the guerrillas.

But the process is slow going and has run into logistical hurdles as well as delays by the government in approving and implementing legislation mandated by the peace deal.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, who is co-leading the visit, said the UN would remain in Colombia as long as it takes to secure peace.