ANTI-DRUG TROOPS FREE FOREIGN HOSTAGES

GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA -- Guatemalan troops on Monday freed a group
foreigners who had been kidnapped in a jungle region of northern Guatemala,
an Interior Ministry official said.

"A group from the DOAN (anti-drugs unit) liberated a family of six or seven
people, Americans or Swiss, who were detained," the official said. The
victims earlier had been identified as 13 Swiss missionaries.

Authorities had said the kidnappers were seeking more than $300,000 in
ransom..

The anti-narcotics unit was sent to the town of Sayaxche, in the Peten
province, a sparsely populated jungle area bordering Mexico and Belize,
officials said. The team was mobilized because it was the closest security
force in the area.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski