Nearly 3,000 workers at Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol are to return to work on Mar. 11, according to an agreement reached Mar. 8 between the government and the United Union of Workers (USO), which represents the workers. The workers went on strike Feb. 26 to protest the Feb. 25 abduction of Gilberto Torres Martinez, general secretary of the union's pipeline section [see Update #631]. Torres remains missing; on Mar. 3 the rightwing paramilitary group Campesino Self-Defense Forces of Casanare (ACC) issued a communique claiming responsibility for his abduction, saying he is a guerrilla collaborator and they will subject him to a "political trial." USO president Hernando Hernandez said the government has promised to seek Torres' release through efforts involving the Church, the Defender of the People and the International Red Cross. Hernandez said USO members will return to work but will continue to hold peaceful marches and rallies until Torres is freed. [Vanguardia (Bucaramanga) 3/5/02, 3/9/02 via Colombia Indymedia; El Tiempo (Bogota) 3/4/02; Xinhua 3/9/02]