Guerrillas in Colombia are demanding $27 million in ransom for a Japanese businessman kidnapped in Bogota last February, a magazine in Colombia reported Sunday.
Security authorities in Colombia confirmed the amount of ransom demanded for Chikao Muramatsu, 53, vice president of a local joint venture of the Japanese auto parts maker Yazaki Corp.
Muramatsu is being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Colombian authorities said.
Colombian media initially reported a ransom demand of around $8 million for Muramatsu at the time his kidnapping came to light.
According to the weekly magazine El Espectador, Muramatsu was kidnapped by a nationwide crime organization called Los Calvos, one of whose main businesses is to sell off kidnapped people to leftist guerrillas.
Los Calvos is also involved in drug trafficking and reportedly has collaborators inside security agencies.
Colombian security authorities arrested six people in March on suspicion of kidnapping Muramatsu. One of the six was linked to the police. They also found a Los Calvos safe house last month and confiscated about $700,000.
Los Calvos allegedly has a close relationship with gangs that specialize in bank and car robberies, as well as groups that select kidnap targets by gaining access to bank account information.
Muramatsu was stopped by men posing as policemen while on his way home by car from a factory in Bogota.
According to the security authorities, FARC "bought" Muramatsu for roughly $250,000 and is holding him in Caqueta in central Colombia.
In October, a 72-year-old Japanese man kidnapped for the second time by FARC was released unharmed on the outskirts of Bogota.
In other kidnappings of Japanese in Colombia, two employees of Toshiba Corp. were kidnapped in 1991, followed by the kidnapping of a company president in 1992. They were all released unharmed.