Missing Candidate Found in Colombia

A candidate running for Colombia's congress next month was found after being missing for more than a day and says he was abducted, police said Friday.

Jose Gregorio Botello is in good shape, Humberto Guatibonza, director of the police anti-kidnapping unit, told reporters. He said police received a tipoff that led them to Botello.

"He says he was forced out of his home when he was bathing, that he was taken by three people in a van to a rural area," Guatibonza said.

Botello will make a statement to police in coming days.

Botello's political party, the Mira party, confirmed his release without giving any details.

The candidate disappeared Wednesday afternoon in the town of Cucuta in northern Colombia near the border with Venezuela, and reappeared Thursday night in Puerto Santander, some 53 kilometers (33 miles) away.

So far, it is unknown who abducted him, officials said.

Mira is a Christian party that describes itself as promoting values such as justice and solidarity.

Police said Botello had been campaigning with a bodyguard, but the latter was not working the day of the disappearance.

Last week several political leaders, mainly from the left, received death threats purportedly from a criminal gang made up in part of former extreme-right paramilitaries. The threats prompted President Juan Manuel Santos to enact special protection measures for the candidates.

Legislative elections are scheduled for March 9, followed by a presidential vote on May 25.