The Colombian army located leftist rebels who are holding kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, but canceled a rescue operation so as not to endanger her life, an army general said.
The rescue operation was suspended "at the request of Doctor Betancourt's family, who asked that her life not be endangered," said the military commander of the southern Colombian region, General Roberto Pizarro.
FARC guerrillas kidnapped Betancourt, 40, along with her campaign manager when she tried to drive into the nearby former rebel stronghold of San Vicente del Caguan on Saturday.
Betancourt is a candidate for the small Green Oxygen party in the May 26 election.
On Monday the United States condemned the weekend kidnapping and reiterated US support for the Colombian government in its war on rebels.UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the kidnapping too and called on FARC rebels to free her and all other captives, according to a UN spokesman in New York.
(Edited by Zheng Guihong for china.org.cn according to reports from Xinhua News Agency and China Daily February 26, 2002)
