Colombia: Farc Guerrillas Admit to Kidnapping Army General Ruben Dario Alzate

Colombian guerrilla group Farc has confirmed that it is holding an army general and two of his colleagues who went missing over the weekend, forcing the Colombian government to suspend peace talks.

According to the Miami Herald, the group announced the capture of Brig. Gen. Ruben Dario Alzate on their Twitter account.

The announcement came after the group's spokesman Felix Antonio Munoz said "we don't know" when asked if they had kidnapped the Colombian general.

"Certainly all the [military] operations in the area make it more difficult for us to communicate quickly," he added, before then revealing that the group were indeed holding Alzate.

Munoz said that the kidnapping occurred because the Colombian government would not negotiate with the group without a ceasefire.

"The decision to talk amid the gunfire leads us to greater folly," he said.

He also referred to the Farc representatives in Havana where the peace talks have been taking place for over two years in hope of ending the decades-long insurgency.

"What happens in Colombia needs to be resolved in Colombia," he said.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced this week that his government suspended peace talks with the rebel group after Alzate lost contact with troops in Quibdo, southwest Colombia, an area where Farc has been known to operate.

"Negotiations with #Farc are suspended until the facts of the kidnapping of general [Ruben] Alzate are clarified," the Ministry of Defense said in a tweet, quoting President Santos.

"We demand that his captors (all signs point to the Farc) set him free as soon as possible, and safe and sound," Santos said on Twitter.