The leftist insurgency shows no sign of ending

Leading newspapers in Colombia have expressed shock and outrage at the killing by left-wing rebels of a provincial governor and a former defence minister who were being held hostage.

However one editorial attacks the country's inequitable social and economic system which it says is at the root of the insurgency and makes a passionate call for change.

Bogota's El Tiempo calls the killing "an atrocious crime" and warns it will have "profound repercussions" for the country's future.

"Such an enormously sad and horrible incident... will have unforeseen consequences for the armed conflict, putting in jeopardy negotiations between the government and the rebels to exchange hostages for jailed guerrillas."

They were abducted during a march for peace. A paradox as sad as it is macabre El Tiempo

El Tiempo blames the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for taking the men hostage and putting their lives in danger in the first place.

But the government also comes in for criticism for its failed rescue attempt. "The government cannot fail to consider the cost of an operation which had exactly the opposite effect than that desired."

Sad and disturbing

The newspaper fears the killings will lead to "increasing polarisation between an even more radicalised rebel movement which prefers its hostages dead rather than rescued and a government seeking to break their spine and more inclined to attempt rescue missions than negotiate".

"And polarisation between a majority redoubling their calls for total war and a minority seeking a negotiated solution in spite of everything. An immensely sad and disturbing situation".

El Tiempo carries a picture of Antioquia governor Guillermo Gaviria and former defence minister Gilberto Echeverri at the moment of their kidnapping during a peace march, and points to the paradox of their death.

"They were the least bellicose face of the establishment and were abducted during a march for peace. A paradox as sad as it is macabre."

Cali's El Pais similarly hails the two men as "optimists, supporters of dialogue for peace, who went on the march ignoring the warnings."

In an editorial headlined "No more killings", the commercial city's leading daily calls for a major campaign against the FARC rebels.

The state must act with a firm hand to defeat these assassins El Pais

"Colombia is deeply moved and indignant at these infamous killings. They were victims of the bloody spirit which seems to guide the FARC, and stops us finding a solution to the violence consuming the country."

Accusing FARC of seeking to blackmail the country with its kidnappings, El Pais says "the terrorist guerrillas must take full responsibility" for the killings.

"Colombia cannot let these kidnappings continue. The nation must stop this blackmail. What is on the line is the dignity of the people, whom they want to submit to their savage aberrations of kidnapping, killing and terrorism."

"The state must act with a firm hand to defeat these assassins," it concludes.

Wounded beast

Another Bogota daily, El Espectador, highlights the recent defection of a senior FARC commander, arguing it generated a message that the rebel cause is "useless and sterile".

"This is the biggest political hiding the government has given this rebel group in recent years - it is devastating for the FARC," the editorial proclaims.

It calls on both FARC leaders and the government to embark on "a more aggressive path to peace, opening true paths of understanding" between them.

I still don't know who killed them, but whoever it was, I offer them my pardon and my desire for reconciliation Murdered governor's wife in El Espectador

But it also warns of the danger that FARC could be considering changing its strategy, so that students replace peasants as its front-line fighters and the war moves from the countryside to the towns and cities.

"The state must be prepared for this new - and very alarming - challenge."

Forgiveness

Elsewhere in El Espectador, the wife of murdered governor Guillermo Gaviria, Yolanda Pinto, speaks movingly of reconciliation in the face of death.

"I still don't know who killed them, but whoever it was, I offer them my pardon and my desire for reconciliation.

There will not be enough soldiers to contain the wave of violence which will devastate the country Commentator in El Universal

"This country is big and beautiful and we should all work together to build a just nation," she says.

"If the pain which today overwhelms me serves to move the country forward, I offer it without reservation, knowing it would make Guillermo happy."

A commentator in the Cartagena daily El Universal launches a scathing attack on the country's rich and powerful, holding them responsible for what he sees as the huge inequalities at the root of Colombia's woes.

Lazaro Vivero Paniza condemns "the country's rich who made their fortune through their misdemeanours... they are now the owners, the gentlemen who hold power."

"They run the country on a whim, stashing their property in Swiss banks while we Colombians assassinate each other without any hint of sanity."

Mr Vivero warns that if the huge economic disparity between the few haves and the many have-nots is not tackled, "there will not be enough soldiers to contain the wave of violence which will devastate the country".

He calls for the government and rebels to work to reach an accord for the release of the remaining hostages, which he says numbers over 3,000.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.