Colombia looking for missing French reporter

Bogota, Colombia (AHN) – Colombia’s defense ministry on Sunday began a search for a missing French reporter wounded during a clash between the Colombian army and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Talking to reporters from Florencia, capital of the province of Caqueta, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said journalist Romeo Langlois was accompanying the Colombian troops as they destroyed five cocaine-processing labs in a counter-narcotics operation.

Langlois is believed to have been shot in the left arm. Pinzon said that four security officers and a militant died in last week’s clash.

“Amid the tension and pressure they were experiencing, Langlois decided to take off his helmet and flak jacket and show that he was a civilian as he moved towards the area from where the guerrillas were firing,” said Pinzon.

When asked whether the FARC had kidnapped the journalist, the minister said that he could not confirm it for the time being. However, he added that he had already urged the FARC to keep the journalist safe if they had abducted him.

Langlois had been working with French television news channel France 24 and the newspaper Le Figaro as a freelance reporter.

The French Foreign Ministry claimed that the rebels had captured the reporter and were holding him as a prisoner.

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