Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday condemned the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for the rebel group's kidnapping of two people on Wednesday evening after it released one hostage.
Santos said that the new kidnapping even made him consider stopping the plan of FARC on the release of four more hostages still kept by it.
"I was tempted to suspend the release of the hostages, because it is totally unacceptable that the FARC on one hand releases hostages as a gesture of generosity, and on the other hand it kidnapped countrymen," he said.
On Wednesday evening, two workers from the "Cartones de Colombia" company were kidnapped in a rural area of El Tambo municipality in the southwest of the country by the group.
Earlier in the day, the FARC released Marcos Baquero, a former councilor of San Jose del Guaviare municipality.
The release came after the group announced last December that it would unilaterally release five hostages, including 35-year-old Baquero, as a goodwill gesture.
Baquero was the first to be freed, and the other four were scheduled to be released on Friday and Sunday. The five were kidnapped in separate incidents over a two-year period between 2007 and 2009.
Santos urged FARC to release all hostages and vowed that the two new hostages would be "rescued" in the coming hours.
FARC, Latin America's oldest guerrilla group, was once a strong anti-government force and was notorious for its drug trafficking and kidnapping activities.
The FARC last released hostages in March 2010, when they freed a Colombian soldier they had held for more than 12 years.
The rebels have long demanded a hostage-for-prisoner swap, something Santos had refused to consider.