Colombian Police Rescue Kidnapped Businessman

A businessman kidnapped two months ago was rescued in an operation in which four suspects were captured, the Colombian police reported Monday.

Eduardo Alfonso Vives Lacouture was found bound to a bed in a house in the municipality of Bosconia in the northern province of Cesar.

The gang who abducted Vives operated in several northern provinces, Gen. Humberto Guatibonza, the head of the elite Gaula anti-kidnapping unit, told reporters.

“Their zone of criminal activity is Cesar, La Guajira and Magdalena,” the police chief said.

No shots were fired in the rescue operation. “It was a clean operation in which there was not a single shot; it was a surprise and (a) successful operation, Guatibonza said.

Vives was kidnapped from his farm near Orihueca, Magdalena, by at least two men who were posing as vigilantes.

The kidnapped man is the cousin of former congressmen Luis Eduardo and Raul Vives Lacouture.

In November 2005, the ELN guerrilla group kidnapped another member of this family – Mauricio Vives Lacouture – who apparently died in a clash between his kidnappers and the army.

Published in Latino Daily News