Colombian army frees 57 soldiers held captive by locals

Fifty-seven soldiers who had been held captive by locals in the mountains of Colombia since the weekend have been freed in a military operation, the Colombian defence minister has said.

The minister, Pedro Sánchez, said that not a single shot had been fired in what he dubbed "Operation Justice".

The soldiers were seized in the Cauca region, a stronghold of the EMC rebel group, which engages in cocaine production and trafficking.

Mr Sánchez blamed the EMC for what he described as the soldiers' "kidnapping", saying that the locals who had seized them had been ordered to do so by the rebels.

The Colombian military said the incident had been triggered by the arrest of a suspected EMC rebel on Saturday.

As the soldiers prepared to airlift the suspect out of the mountainous area, they were surrounded by more than 100 people.

A second military unit was then seized the following day by an even larger group of locals, General Erick Rodríguez of the Colombian army said.

It was not the first time that members of the security forces were detained by locals, but the size of the group of soldiers was unusually large.

In past similar instances, locals negotiated with humanitarian groups and the captured soldiers were released relatively swiftly.

But this time, those holding the 57 refused to talk to any go-betweens, triggering the deployment of extra troops to the area to free the captive soldiers.

Heavily armed reinforcements were deployed to the area and arrested 20 people, the defence minister said.

According to estimates by the military, more than 90% of the inhabitants of the area depend on the cultivation of coca bushes - the plant used to make cocaine - for a living.

The presence of soldiers in the area is therefore often seen as a direct threat.

The region has also been blighted by the presence of several armed groups which extort farmers and landowners, and engage in illegal mining and cocaine trafficking.