COLOMBIAN REBELS END PLANT SEIZURE

Hostages Freed At Power Facility Mostly Owned By Houston Firm

Rebels on Saturday released 145 hostages and ended a five-day occupation of
a hydroelectric plant in western Colombia, a facility which is mostly owned
by Houston-based Reliant Energy.

"All of the people who were held have been freed," said Liliana Velasquez,
a spokeswoman for Empresa de Energia del Pacifico, which runs the plant.

Dan Bulla, the general manager of external relations for Reliant, said he
was "pleased that they are leaving and pleased that there were no injuries."

No Americans were among the hostages, Bulla said.

Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, took over
the remote plant in Anchiclaya, near the steamy Colombian Pacific coast on
Tuesday as a show of support for a national labor strike.

Velasquez said the rebels pulled out of the Anchiclaya power plant after
the company pledged it would monitor labor conditions there and conduct
public meetings to discuss electricity rates in the western region it
serves. She said the guerrillas had left the facility in "perfect condition."

Led by a ski-masked commander, about 60 rebels from the country's largest
insurgent group took over the power plant near the western port of
Buenaventura without firing a shot.

The rebels initially demanded a 30 percent reduction in electricity rates,
but apparently settled for less. They had freed 23 hostages on Friday.

The region's power supply was not affected and there was no reported violence.

The government criticized the rebel action, but did not send security
forces to counter it.

The 360-megawatt power plant provides electricity to the Pacific port city
of Buenaventura.

Reliant and Caracas Electricity of Venezuela own 57 percent of the company.

"We are the majority owners," Reliant's Bulla said.

Reliant Energy provides service to 9.5 million people worldwide.

Colombia has become a particularly dangerous country for international
companies in recent years, as rebels target foreign executives for
kidnapping and foreign oil pipelines and power facilities for sabotage.

But even the most recent event will not discourage Reliant from continuing
to invest in the country, Bulla said.

"There has been a rebel force there for 30 years," he said. "If you do
business down there, you may encounter them."