[NYTr] Chavez Persists in Colombia Mediation, Captive-Exchange Effort

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[The latest developments in Hugo Chavez's Effort to mediate between the
Colombian government and the rebel armies FARC and ELN, and to reach
some agreement on a captive change. via VIO. -NYTr]

AP via Intl Herald Tribune - Sep 18, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/19/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Colombia-FARC.php

Chavez: FARC insists on demilitarized zone before possible prisoner swap

The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela: Colombia's largest rebel group refuses to budge on
its demand for a New York City-size demilitarized zone as a
precondition for talks on exchanging some of its hostages for guerrilla
prisoners, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday.

The Colombian government has repeatedly rejected demands by the rebels
for troops to clear an 800-square-kilometer (310-square-mile) area in
southwestern Colombia for talks aimed at securing the release of 45
high-profile hostages, including three Americans.

During a brief televised appearance with peace mediator and Colombian
Sen. Piedad Cordoba, Chavez read segments of a letter from
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, commander Manuel
Marulanda and insisted that a meeting with the octogenarian rebel is
vital for talks to move forward.

Reading the letter from Marulanda, Chavez said: "The clearing out of
troops from the municipalities of Florida and Pradera is indispensable
so that officials from the government and FARC can agree on terms and
procedures that lead to the liberation of the hostages."

Chavez has asked Colombian President Alvaro Uribe permission to travel
into FARC-dominated territory to meet the Marulanda. But Colombia's
U.S.-allied government has dismissed such a meeting as inappropriate.

Marulanda has said he is not able to travel to Venezuela at the moment.

The rebels are holding several hundred hostages. Among the most
prominent are three U.S. defense contractors and former presidential
candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen.

Cordoba, who was tapped by Uribe to mediate a prisoner swap, said she
would travel to Washington in the coming weeks to meet with Ricardo
Palmera and Anayibe Rojas Valderama, two senior FARC members who are
currently in U.S. custody after being extradited by Colombia.

The FARC has long insisted the two guerrillas, who have been convicted
by U.S. courts on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, be part of
any swap.

U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield has refused to say
whether he would recommend the White House pardon Palmera and Rojas
Valderama to facilitate a deal.

Also Tuesday, Venezuelan state television broadcast a videotape of a
visit by Cordoba last week to a jungle camp in Colombia where senior
FARC commander Raul Reyes proposed an Oct. 8 meeting with Chavez.

                              ***

AFP via Google - Sep 18, 2007
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jIGjic1dVl1vWktYqJ6IYH5yqgCA

Colombia rebels demand demilitarized zone for hostage swap: Chavez

Agence France Presse

CARACAS ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is acting as a mediator
in Colombia's hostage crisis, said Tuesday that leftist rebels insist
that the Colombian government create a demilitarized zone for a
prisoner swap.

Chavez said the two top leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, which wants to swap 45 high-profile
hostages for 500 imprisoned rebels, made their demand in two letters
sent to him.

The rebel hostages include dual nationality French-Colombian politician
Ingrid Betancourt, three US citizens, and a number of Colombian
senators, governors, congressmen and mayors.

"Mr. President, there is willingness within FARC to facilitate the
exchange of prisoners held by FARC," Chavez read. One letter was
written by FARC chief Manuel Marulanda and the other by his top deputy,
Raul Reyes.

"For that to happen, we consider the removal of troops from the
(southwestern) towns of Pradera and Florida essential to allow leaders
of FARC and the government to agree on the terms and procedures
regarding the captives," the letter said, according to Chavez.

But the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe reiterated
Tuesday its refusal to create a demilitarized zone.

"This is not negotiable," Jose Obdulio Gaviria, a top aide of Uribe,
told AFP. "We will keep giving the same answer."

Chavez said Reyes also wrote that FARC were "preparing the terrain" to
hold a meeting between Chavez and Marulanda in Colombia.

Chavez had asked Uribe on Saturday to let him meet with Marulanda in
Colombia's jungle, but Bogota denied the request.

The 17,000-strong Marxist rebels have been fighting the government
since the 1960s.

                                  ***

Bloomberg - Sep 18, 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=amaVZkBNygwA&refer=latin_america

Venezuela's Chavez May Meet Colombian Rebel Leader Next Month

By Matthew Walter

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he may meet with Raul Reyes, a
leader of Colombia's biggest guerilla group, in early October to help
negotiate a hostage release.

Reyes, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, proposed a
meeting on Oct. 8 in Venezuela, Chavez said, according to a statement
from the Venezuelan government.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has consented to Chavez's involvement
in talks with the FARC, as the rebel group is known, to help win the
release of about 45 hostages in exchange for 500 jailed guerillas. 

                                 ***

The Miami Herald - Sep 18, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/venezuela/story/241369.html

Chávez stands to gain by trying to free hostages

By Phil Gunson, Sibylla Brodinsky and Tyler Bridges

CARACAS -- Isabel Hernández pondered only briefly the question of
whether she favors President Hugo Chávez's efforts to free 45 hostages,
including three Americans, held by guerrillas in Colombia.

Chávez ''should worry more about problems in Venezuela,'' said
Hernández, a receptionist. ``Food is very expensive, and you can't
always find eggs and milk.''

Shrugging off criticism, Chávez has undertaken what analysts call an
ambitious gambit to free the hostages that is diverting attention from
his domestic problems, burnishing his reputation abroad and giving him
entry into Colombian politics -- as part of a long-term goal to expand
his influence throughout the region.

Few analysts expect Chávez to get the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, better known as FARC, to release the 45 prominent hostages it
holds. At best, he might get the FARC to free a few hostages as a
symbolic gesture, which still likely would win him plaudits.

''He has all to gain and nothing to lose,'' said Patrick Esteruelas, a
political-risk analyst in New York who follows the Andean countries.
``He's seen some of his domestic popularity and foreign-policy
credentials take a hit. . . . Chávez has seen that the way to bolster
his foreign-policy credentials is to be a mediator in brokering a
hostage swap that thus far has been elusive for others.''

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been under steady public pressure
over the past years to negotiate a swap of FARC hostages for jailed
rebels. Besides the three U.S. defense contractors seized when their
plane crashed in a guerrilla-controlled region in 2003, the hostages
include former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a
French-Colombian citizen, several other politicians and police and
military officials.

But Uribe has steadfastly rejected demands by the FARC, Latin America's
oldest and largest guerrilla group, for a demilitarized zone where the
exchange could be negotiated.

María Teresa Romero, an international-relations professor at
Venezuela's Central University, said Uribe didn't have much of a choice
once Sen. Piedad Córdoba, of Colombia's opposition Liberal Party,
proposed having Chávez mediate the swap.

''Uribe has been criticized for failing to free the hostages,'' Romero
said. ``He's accepted the mediation of the Europeans. How could he turn
down Chávez?''

AN OPENING

Still, Romero added, giving Chávez a foothold in Colombian politics
carries risks for Uribe: ``It gives Chávez the chance to expand his
revolution to Colombia.''

The new U.S. ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield, butted heads
with Chávez when he served as U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. But
Brownfield had nothing but praise for his new mission.

''We see as positive the participation of any leader, functionary,
official, politicians or person from any country in any effort that
could produce the prompt and safe liberation of the three American
hostages and the multitude of Colombian hostages,'' he told reporters
in Bogotá.

PRAISE FROM REBEL

In many ways Chávez is the ideal mediator, analysts say. The FARC sees
Chávez as a sort of kindred spirit in his anti-U.S. ''Bolivarian''
ideology. Allegations that rebels have established rear-guard camps
across the border in Venezuela have circulated for years.

In an interview published in the Mexican daily La Jornada, senior FARC
commander Raúl Reyes praised Chávez's ''ability, his shrewdness and the
prestige he has gained on the continent'' and predicted he would ``help
to resolve the issue of the humanitarian exchange.''

The main sticking point for the swap has been the FARC demand for the
safe haven that would host negotiations. Before Uribe was elected, the
FARC used a similar demilitarized zone to recruit and train new
fighters and hold kidnap victims.

A Datexco poll published last month in the Bogotá daily El Tiempo
showed that Colombians were split over whether the government should
grant the safe haven. Uribe's own father was killed in a botched FARC
kidnapping attempt in 1986.

But the pressures on Uribe have been increasing. Eleven regional
lawmakers kidnapped by the FARC more than five years ago were killed in
June in a confusing incident.

The FARC blamed a government attack, but the government denied any
attack and blamed the FARC.

Meanwhile, a schoolteacher whose son was kidnapped by the FARC rallied
thousands of Colombians on a 600-mile march to demand a humanitarian
accord.

Chávez's efforts already may have paid some dividends for him.
Venezuelan officials claimed French President Nicolas Sarkozy on
Tuesday telephoned him to praise his efforts on behalf of Betancourt
and the others.

OTHER KIDNAP VICTIMS

Still, Chávez faces restiveness at home. Officials at the Venezuelan
ranchers' federation, Fedenaga, wonder why Chávez isn't doing more to
free the more than 77 Venezuelans kidnapped and currently in captivity,
some of them since 2002 or 2003. More than half are ranchers.

This year alone, the federation says, at least 167 people have been
kidnapped, including 61 of its members.

''The president should intervene on behalf of these people, too,'' said
María Pinto, Fedenaga's executive president.

Miami Herald special correspondents Brodzinsky and Gunson reported from
Bogotá and Caracas, respectively. Correspondent Bridges reported from
Caracas.