Via the BBC: Colombia captures Farc kidnapper
Soldiers fought Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels in the central province of Cundinamarca, killing 10 and capturing another eight.
Among those taken was a leader known by the alias “El Negro Antonio”, whom authorities have been seeking for well over a decade.
One soldier was killed in the combat and a kidnap victim rescued.
According to El Tiempo, El Negro Antonio (aka John Freddy Balcázar Castillo, aka Bernardo Mosquera Machado–it is unclear to me which is his real name) was responsible for over 100 kidnapping and “between 1998 and 2024 was one of the most feared guerrillas in Bogotá and Cundinamarca.” Cundinamarca is the department (geographically, but not politically, like a US state) which surrounds Bogotá and the Federal District.
According to the El Tiempo piece, El Negro Antonio had been reported killed in 2024.
El País reports that authorities believe that El Negro Antonio had been designated by the FARC’s secretariat
to be in charge of kidnapping and extorsion in the department of Meta and in San Vicente del Caguán.
The kidnap victim who was freed was Efraín Mendoza, a businessman from Ibagué (capital of the department of Tolima) who had been held captive for three weeks.
Reuters provides the following brief video report:
