This archive report was first published on 19 June 2020.
On June 19, 2020, Colombian authorities announced the rescue of two kidnapped tourists, Daniel Max Guggenheim and Jose Ivan Albuquerque, during a military operation in the southwestern Cauca department.
The two men were taken hostage by the 'Dagoberto Ramos Mobile Column', a dissident group from the former rebel FARC movement, in mid-March.
According to the army's anti-kidnapping unit, the guerrillas are among around 2,300 armed dissidents who refused to lay down arms during the historic 2016 peace accord.
During their captivity, Guggenheim and Albuquerque were guarded by one of the suspected kidnappers, who was also captured by the military.
"He told us we'd reached the cemetery," Guggenheim recalled about their armed assailant.
The two men were taken hostage alongside their two pet Pomeranian dogs.
The rescue operation highlights the ongoing threat posed by dissident groups, who continue to finance themselves through drug-trafficking and illegal mining.
