Loggers face threat from rebel groups

A shadowy armed band emerges in forest to launch attacks against logging industry

A few moments of relaxation for Chilean logger Nelson Hidalgo were shattered one day last month when 12 armed men piled out of a pickup truck and demanded he step outside his worksite dining trailer.

At rifle-point, the masked men forced Hidalgo and a handful of colleagues to the ground, according to the workers' accounts. Over the next hour, the armed men burned a minibus, an excavator, and other equipment belonging to Nylyumar Forestry - Hidalgo's employer and a subcontractor for Chilean timber giant Celulosa Arauco.