Colombian Marxist guerrillas have kidnapped a Roman Catholic bishop and may use him to send a message to the authorities, church leaders said on Monday.
The National Liberation Army seized Monsignor Misael Vacca near the town of Paya, in mountains 130 miles northeast of the capital Bogota, on Sunday, said Monsignor Fabian Marulanda, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia.
The rebels told other priests who were with Vacca that they planned to give him a message to deliver and then release him.
"We hold firm to the hope that they will only keep him for a short time, maybe, as has been insinuated, in order to send a message. We request and demand the greatest respect for the life of Monsignor Misael," Marulanda said.
The 5,000-strong rebel army, known by its Spanish initials ELN, was long led by a renegade priest who interpreted Biblical teachings to help the poor as a call to arms in a country where most people struggle to make ends meet.
The Roman Catholic Church has occasionally acted as a mediator between the government and both the ELN and the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, although both guerrilla groups have occasionally kidnapped or even killed priests.
Mexico has agreed with the Colombian government request to offer itself as a mediator in any peace talks with the ELN. But the rebels, which the army says have suffered heavy losses and are struggling to keep fighting, replied that they thought it would be hard to negotiate with right-wing President Alvaro Uribe.
"This is a painful incident, which again demonstrates that the kidnapping is a detestable crime, which can be justified by no motive," Marulanda said.
The ELN and the FARC kidnap hundreds of people every year, mainly for ransom.
They have been fighting for socialist revolution for 40 years, in a conflict which claims thousands of lives a year. With help from the United States, Uribe has boosted military spending and has started peace talks with far-right paramilitaries but the Marxist rebels have refused his terms.