MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kidnapped Colombian governor found dead with slit throat

The Colombian government blames FARC, active in Caqueta province for the killing of Cuellar Carbajal

The body of Luis Francisco Cuellar Carvajal, governor of the Colombian department of Caqueta, was discovered Tuesday not far from where he was kidnapped the night before, government spokesperson Wilmer Rua said.

Cuellar Carvajal's throat was slit, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said in an address to the nation Tuesday night.

Cuellar is the most high profile politician abducted since President Uribe came to power in 2002.

The governor's body was found by Colombian troops in an area close to his home, where he was kidnapped Monday night, he said. One of his bodyguards was killed in the high-profile abduction, and two other officers were injured

The kidnapping was carried out by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said earlier Tuesday.

Rua said this was the fifth time the governor had been kidnapped in the past 23 years, for between two and seven months each time. The family admitted having paid ransom to secure his release in previous occasions.

Uribe had ordered the military to find and rescue Cuellar Carvajal from the rebel group.

The Marxist cocaine financed insurgent group has been fighting the Colombian government for more than 45 years.

Uribe said that members of the FARC kidnapped Cuellar Carvajal at about 10 p.m. Monday. Authorities ordered the city on lockdown in an attempt to keep the kidnappers from carrying out their plan, Uribe said.

Instead, the guerrillas burned the vehicle that authorities believe was used in the kidnapping, and then slit the governor's throat to avoid leaving evidence that may have been traced from a firearm to the killers, Uribe said.

The president offered a reward equivalent to half a million US dollars for information leading to the arrests of those responsible.

Caqueta has been a stronghold of the FARC. The guerrilla organization did not claim responsibility for the kidnapping.

The rurally-based organisation, which finances itself through drugs trafficking, was once thought to have some 16,000 fighters, but reports suggest it now has about 9,000. FARC has suffered several defeats at the hands of conservative Uribe's security forces.

Colombian Defence Minister Gabriel Silva said the attack showed that “narco-terrorists” were making a desperate effort to “show their capacity”, but that their strength was weakening.