On Mar. 25, unidentified assailants forced two nonunion employees of Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol out of their truck and abducted them in Araguaney municipality, Casanare department, according to a Mar. 27 statement from the company. The two were working under a "contingency plan" to maintain oil production during a nationwide strike by members of the United Union of Workers (USO), which represents some 4,000 of Ecopetrol's 7,800 employees. USO called the strike on Mar. 20 to protest the murder that same day of Rafael Jaimes Torra, treasurer of the USO refinery section in Barrancabermeja [see Update #634]. The paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) are believed responsible for the murder, and company and union officials said they suspect paramilitary groups are also behind the Mar. 25 abduction. In its statement, Ecopetrol called for the safe release of the abducted employees as well as of Gilberto Torres Martinez, general secretary of the USO's pipeline section, who was seized by paramilitaries on Feb. 25 in Monterrey, Casanare [see Updates #631-633]. [Dow Jones Newswires 3/26/02; El Colombiano (Medellin) 3/26/02]