BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- Bogota invited the world¡¯s bounty hunters to scour its jungles and mountains and drag back rebel chiefs in return for cash rewards.

    ¡°It would be great if all the bounty hunters in the world came to capture those bandits. The money¡¯s there for them, and the rewards are good,¡± Vice President Francisco Santos told Colombian reporters last week.

    The Colombian government has put rewards of up to about US$2 million on the heads of outlaws like Manuel ¡°Sureshot¡± Marulanda, veteran Marxist commander of the 17,000 fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia which is known as FARC.

    Santos¡¯ comments came after officials said they had paid an unspecified reward to an anonymous informant who helped them catch Rodrigo Granda, a top rebel who authorities called the FARC¡¯s ¡°foreign minister.¡±

    Granda¡¯s capture has caused a diplomatic squabble with neighboring Venezuela, which says he was kidnapped from a street in Caracas.

    The Colombian government, which has long suspected Venezuela¡¯s leftist President Hugo Chavez of sympathies for the FARC, insists they nabbed Granda within their borders.

    Colombia¡¯s war with the FARC and other illegal armed groups has lasted 40 years and claims thousands of lives annually.

    President Alvaro Uribe owes his 70-percent approval rating to a military campaign against the FARC but the group¡¯s top commanders keep safe in hideouts in the country¡¯s extensive mountains and jungles.

    But Colombia is outgunned in the reward stakes by its ally the United States, which has offered up to US$25 million for information leading to the arrest of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)