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Columbia: Japanese Immigrant Held by FARC
Left-wing Colombian guerrillas have apparently seized a Japanese immigrant who cultivates plants at a garden in southwestern Colombia, the country's security authorities and local sources said Wednesday. The guerrillas have demanded ransom several times for Masao Tsutsui, 68, a resident of Santiago de Cali, or simply Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, the sources said.An underworld syndicate captured Tsutsui in late March and handed him over to the guerrilla group, called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, in exchange for an unknown amount of money, the security authorities said. The FARC group has since detained Tsutsui as a hostage. The security authorities and local sources said a female customer visited Tsutsui's garden in Candelaria near Cali in the afternoon of March 23 and asked him to deliver plants. Tsutsui went missing after he left the garden carrying the plants and the customer in a van, the sources said. Posted by: badanov 2010-06-27 |
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