TOURIST BOAT HIJACKED

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Suspected guerrillas posing as passengers hijacked
a tourist boat off Colombia's Pacific coast, abducting 14 men before
releasing the vessel, its captain and the women and children aboard,
the navy reported Sunday.

Four assailants with concealed weapons boarded the boat Saturday in
Buenaventura, a major western port, then forced it to land at a beach,
where they took away the male passengers.

"An armed man took the steering wheel, threatened us and made us look
downward," Patricia Sanchez, wife of one of the men still being held,
told Radionet.

After reaching the beach, Sanchez said she grabbed her husband's hand
and tried to stay with him. But he and his captors insisted that she
remain behind with the other women and children.

No group has claimed responsibility. But the action appeared to be
another in a wave of abductions by guerrillas during Colombia's
35-year conflict.