[NYTr] FARC Blames Hostage Hang-up on Colombian Military

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Reuters UK is also reporting that the FARC and the Colombian government
are "trading accusations" on who's impeding the release. -NYTr]


BBC - Dec 31, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7166438.stm

New delay for Colombian hostages

Colombian leftist rebels say government military operations are
blocking the release of three hostages, according to Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuelan helicopters have been waiting since the weekend to pick up
two women and a boy the Farc promised to release to Mr Chavez.

They were due to be freed as a gesture but disagreements between
Caracas and Bogota have dogged the process.

The Venezuelan leader read out what he said was a letter from the Farc
on TV.

Military operations "impede us for now from turning over" the three
hostages, the Farc were quoted as saying.

Promising that the operation would continue, Mr Chavez said the Farc
required a "real ceasefire" before it would let the hostages go.

The operation had to be postponed on Sunday when Venezuelan officials
said the Farc had not provided the co-ordinates for the handover and
that there was not enough time to complete the mission.

Colombian officials say they blame the rebels for the delays.

Women and child

Those due to be freed are Clara Rojas, an aide to ex-presidential
candidate Ingrid Betancourt, with whom she was kidnapped in 2002, and
Ms Rojas's son, Emmanuel, said to have been fathered by one of her
captors.

The other captive is former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo,
who was kidnapped in 2001.

Fifteen members of the hostages' families, who have not seen their
loved ones for more than five years, have been waiting in the
Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

Mr Chavez has been trying to negotiate an exchange of other hostages
for guerrillas imprisoned in Colombian jails but he has been accused by
the Colombian authorities of overstepping his mandate as a mediator.

In response, he has threatened to freeze ties with the neighbouring
state, which is a close trading partner.

It is believed that the Colombian government wants to regain the
initiative with respect to the prisoner exchange and does not want Mr
Chavez, perceived as being too friendly with the Farc, to hijack
negotiations.


                          ***

AFP via Sydney Morning Heralod - Jan 1, 2008 8:50 am AU time
http://news.smh.com.au/colombian-hostage-release-stalls-indefinitely/20080101-1jpi.html


Colombian hostage release stalls indefinitely

Colombian rebels Monday said they would not now be able to release
three hostages as planned, accusing the Colombian government of failing
to guarantee the guerrillas' safety.

The release of two women held for more than five years in the Amazon
jungle, and a three-year-old boy born in captivity, hit a new snag
Monday after days of frantic preparations.

"Intense military operations in the zone make it impossible now" to
release the three, the Marxist FARC rebels said in a statement read by
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been spearheading the
delicate mission.

"To continue under these conditions would endanger the lives of the
people to be released, the other prisoners of war and the guerrillas
carrying out this mission," the rebel statement added.

Helicopters have been on stand-by here since Friday awaiting word to
fly into the jungle to pick up Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel born in
captivity, and former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez.

Chavez said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, one of the
world's oldest insurgencies, had called for a "real ceasefire" before
letting the hostages go.

But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe denied reports of fighting and
said Bogota had agreed to open a safe corridor for the mission, which
is operating under the auspices of the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC).

"We were asked to establish a kind of strategic corridor. We accept
this," Uribe said, adding "there has not been any fighting in this
area."

Uribe, who arrived in this Colombian city earlier Monday to meet
international observers taking part in "Operation Emmanuel," stressed
his government had provided all the security guarantees that were asked
for.

"What has the attitude of the FARC been? One of lies, and cheating,"
Uribe said in a speech shown on television, accusing the rebels of
deliberately delaying the hostages' release.

Gonzalez and Rojas were snatched in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Rojas
was a top aide to Franco-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid
Betancourt, who was seized at the same time and was not due to be
released with the others.

But Uribe raised the possibility the rebels could not complete the
handover of the hostages as they were no longer holding the little boy.

"The FARC can't keep the promise to free the hostages because they no
longer have the child, Emmanuel, in their power," Uribe said,
suggesting instead that a boy found in July 2006 in southeast Colombia
was Emmanuel -- he was being cared for in a children's home in Bogota.

Uribe proposed that DNA tests be carried out on the child and
Emmanuel's grandmother to see if they were related.

The FARC has been fighting to overthrow the government for decades and
holds hundreds of hostages including Betancourt and three US
contractors whose plane was shot down in 2003.

The hostage handover had been due to take place in the
310,000-square-kilometer (120,000-square-mile) wilderness of central
and southeastern Colombia, where there are few roads but numerous
landing strips used by drug traffickers.

© 2008 AFP

                            ***

[Consider the source of this one and treat with caution. -NYTr]

Voice of Amerika - Dec 31, 2007
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-31-voa48.cfm


Chavez: Colombian Rebels Say Army Impeding Hostage Release

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he has been informed by Colombian
leftist rebels that military operations in Colombia are preventing the
handover of three hostages held in the jungle for several years.

President Chavez spoke in an interview Monday with Venezuelan
television. Mr. Chavez has been negotiating the release of the
hostages, who are being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, known as the FARC. But the Venezuelan leader said efforts to
secure their freedom will continue.

Earlier, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe denied that military
operations were responsible for the delay. He made his comments in
central Colombia, where he met with international observers who have
been waiting for the handover to take place. Colombia's top peace
envoy, Luis Carlos Restrepo, blamed the delay on the FARC. 

The observers and Red Cross representatives have been waiting since
Friday.

The White House says Mr. Uribe spoke to President Bush by phone Monday
and updated him on the situation, noting that "various issues" were
still being worked out.

Officials say the rebels have not disclosed where in Colombia's dense
jungle they would release former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez, as well as
former vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas and her three-year-old
son, Emmanuel, who was fathered by one of the captors.

The FARC has demanded the release of hundreds of rebels held in
Colombian prisons, in return for freeing several high-profile hostages.

The FARC has been fighting the government for decades. It holds more
than 40 so-called high profile hostages, including former presidential
candidate Ingrid Betancourt, kidnapped with Rojas in February 2002, and
three American defense contractors [sic].

                          ***

AP via Google - Dec 31, 2007
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4KHTkP2iDNsZIPq48q97-4SvKOQD8TSKJ600

Chavez's Colombia Hostage Rescue Falters

By TOBY MUSE

VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (AP) — A Venezuelan-led mission to rescue three
hostages held by leftist rebels in Colombia's vast jungles was
tottering on the edge of collapse Monday, with guerrillas still not
revealing where they'll free the hostages.

Colombian officials accused the rebels of failing to keep their promise
to release the hostages, while international observers grew
increasingly impatient with the delays, some threatening to return home.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was traveling to this central
Colombian city to reassure observers from France, Switzerland and five
Latin American countries that his government was providing all the
necessary security guarantees to carry out the stalled operation, which
was originally to be completed by Sunday.

His top peace envoy blamed the delays squarely on the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has so far failed to tell
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez exactly where in the France-sized
eastern jungles it will free the hostages.

"We are enormously worried over the FARC's attitude of repeatedly lying
and not fulfilling its promises," peace commissioner Luis Carlos
Restrepo told the 150 journalists who have camped at Villavicencio's
airport since Thursday.

The FARC announced two weeks ago that it would free the three hostages
— former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, Clara Rojas and her 3-year
old son fathered by one of her captors, Emmanuel — to Chavez. The
guerrilla group has made no public statements since then.

On Friday, Chavez sent the first two of four helicopters to
Villavicencio, but there's been no new movement, other than the arrival
of U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone.

To calm the tensions, Chavez dispatched Venezuelan Foreign Minister
Nicolas Maduro. Arriving by surprise in sweltering Villavicencio Monday
morning, Maduro said the operation could last several more days and
pleaded for "patience and nerves of steel."

Colombia's government had vowed to stay mostly out of the operation,
allowing Chavez to use his leftist credentials with the FARC to secure
a speedy return of the hostages to family members waiting for days in
Caracas.

But the arrival of Uribe, and harsh reprimand by Restrepo, seems to
have marked an end to their hands-off approach.

"It appears that the (Venezuelan) communication with the FARC is not
working," said Restrepo. "We Colombians have spent 40 years enduring
this terrorist group and their lies. ... Naturally, it doesn't surprise
us the FARC isn't keeping their promises."

On Sunday, former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner was seen angrily
loading his luggage into an SUV and had to be coaxed to stay by panicky
Venezuelan diplomats, according to a member of the international
delegation who requested anonymity so as not to interfere with the
operation.

Several other envoys have also complained privately about the delays
and are threatening to abandon the city in time to return home before
the New Year's holiday.

Uribe last month abruptly ended Chavez' efforts to broker a wider swap
of 44 high-profile hostages — including three American defense
contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt — for
hundreds of jailed rebels.

But family members have urged the firebrand leftist on, saying he is
the only intermediary capable of breaking a government-rebel deadlock.

The two sides have not held face-to-face talks since Uribe took power
in 2002.

Uribe has instead used some $600 million in annual military and
intelligence aid from Washington to push the half-century-old
insurgency deeper into the jungle.