Hopes dashed for kidnapped foreigners' swift release

Catholic Church mediators who travelled to the jungles of northern Colombia to try to negotiate the release of seven foreign tourists said they were heading home after receiving no word from rebels behind the mass abduction.

“They (the guerrillas) have showed a total lack of interest,” said Bishop Ugo Puccini, a member of the church peace commission that travelled to the Sierra Nevada mountains last week at the government’s request, yesterday.