[Breaking news update, published at 5:55 p.m. ET]
[One of the three journalists who went missing in Colombia and allegedly were in the hands of Marxist guerrillas has been freed, according to a Catholic bishop who spoke to the journalist.]
[Original story, published at 2:41 p.m. ET]
The three journalists who went missing in Colombia within the past week are in the hands of the ELN, or National Liberation Army, a Marxist guerrilla group with a heavy presence in the Catatumbo region, according to a top Colombian official.
“I can confirm with certainty that the ELN is responsible for the disappearance of these three professionals,” Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said during a televised press conference Thursday.
Spanish journalist Salud Hernandez went missing Saturday in the Catatumbo region of northern Colombia.
Correspondent Diego D’Pablos and cameraman Carlos Melo, both from the Colombian RCN TV network, disappeared in the same area Monday while covering the disappearance of Hernandez.
At a separate news conference Thursday in Bogota, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she’s deeply concerned about the journalists’ welfare.
“This is a matter of primary concern for us, not only for the safety of the people involved but also for the freedom of the press,” Mogherini said.
RCN news director Claudia Gurisatti told CNN en Español on Tuesday that a government human rights official first confirmed the disappearance of her network’s journalists.
“They called us and said that, ironically, the group of journalists who were covering what people in the area knew about Salud’s disappearance had themselves been attacked. Their belongings, including their equipment, cameras, computers, communication equipment, telephones, were taken from them,” Gurisatti said.
Catatumbo is an area of nearly 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) in the Norte de Santander department. Illegal crops are Catatumbo’s economic engine, according to Gurisatti. In addition to drug traffickers, the ELN, the Spanish acronym for National Liberation Army, controls vast areas in the region. Gurisatti said security forces are “nonexistent” there.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told reporters in Bogota this week that he ordered an army commander and the director of national police to travel to the region to oversee search efforts. At one point, Santos said, five journalists were missing Monday night, but three were located shortly thereafter.
The disappearances of the three journalists, if they were in fact kidnapped, may become an obstacle for peace talks between the Colombian government and two guerrilla groups: the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Putting a halt to kidnappings was one of the conditions the government set for negotiations.
Frank Pearl, the Colombian government’s negotiator with the ELN, said on his Twitter account that “If the ELN kidnapped @saludhernandezm, Diego de Pablos (sic) and Carlos Melo, they have to free them immediately.”
Salud Hernandez traveled last week to the region that borders Venezuela to cover a story about illegal crops.
“She’s a woman who has traveled all of the Colombian countryside, its mountains, its landscapes and valleys … as an average citizen would. She doesn’t bring an advance or production team,” Gurisatti said.
Hernandez is a correspondent for the Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo and a columnist for the Colombian paper El Tiempo. She is known as a fierce critic of Santos and Colombia’s peace process.