Hostage deal impossible for now: FARC

[High Plains]

Source: Agence France Presse

The promised release of three hostages held by Colombian FARC rebels is impossible for now, the group said in a statement on Monday.

The statement was read out by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been negotiating the hostages' freedom.

Through Mr Chavez, the FARC said the security conditions to release the hostages, Clara Rojas, aide to former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, her son Emmanuel, born in captivity, and former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez, had not been met.

"The operation will continue," Mr Chavez said, adding the efforts to secure the hostages' freedom were "ongoing." He said the FARC required a "real ceasefire" before letting the hostages go.

-AFP



Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/01/2129697.htm?section=world

[arcos]

1. Damn! :( nt

[DRoseDARs]

2. So Chavez ISN'T the Second Coming of Christ everyone was making him out to be?

Because someone had to say it. :flamesuit:

[atreides1]

3. He never was

But at least he tried, can't say the same for BushCo!!!!

[Bacchus39]

18. Hugo must be pissed off they denied him another photo op

n/t

[countmyvote4real]

4. FARC has every reason to mistrust the Columbian government.

Even if the effort includes Chavez, they rightly know that he is an equal target to discredit.

I wonder why FARC hasn't just dropped the hostages off at some undisclosed pay phone. Maybe FARC isn't to be trusted. I don't know. There are too many opposing interests here for me to believe in a safe and secure outcome.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Dead hostages are politically valuable to Uribe's government.They have absolutely no reason to want

a decent outcome to this attempted transaction.

They have been accustomed to receiving HUGE outlays from _{George W. Bush} of U.S. taxpayers' hard-earned money, $600,000,000.00 annually, and they are not even close to considering walking away from that and recasting their economy on their own budget. What's in it for them?

If the hostages are lost, they will continue business as usual, and add a little fire to it if they can get a hot spin by claiming the FARC killed the same hostages the FARC need to keep alive for obvious reasons.

The rebels need to turn their hostages over to INTERNATIONAL officials in order for this to work. If Uribe runs his military in there and intercepts the trade, he can kill them, claim the FARC did it, even kill a bunch of rebels, and pompously back out of his agreement to release some FARC in return, and keep right on the US gravy train, as planned.

[Bacchus39]

17. there is no threat to cut off US aid to Colombia if the hostages are released

none whatsoever.

what the rebels NEED to do is release the hostages and lay down their arms.

[struggle4progress]

6. Farc hostage rescue fails

Source: The Guardian

Ed Pilkington in New York
Wednesday January 2, 2008

... late on Monday the rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc, which is thought to be holding up to 3,000 hostages in the eastern jungles, sent a message to Chávez saying that military operations by the Colombian government had scuppered any handover.

Chávez accused his Colombian counterpart, President Álvaro Uribe, of lying. "Uribe went to dynamite the third phase of this operation," he said ...

The Colombian leader shot back, claiming Farc had broken its promises despite extensive guarantees from the government of security for both hostages and guerrillas. "The Farc terrorist group have fooled Colombia and now they want to fool the international community."

The breakdown adds to the mystery surrounding Emmanuel, the boy aged three or four who was fathered by a Farc rebel and born to one of the hostages, Clara Rojas. Uribe stunned observers with the suggestion that the boy may be living in a foster home in Bogotá. DNA tests on the boy and Rojas's mother are planned to verify the claim ...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2233982,00.html

---

Colombia hostage deal fiasco bad news for captives
Tue Jan 1, 2008 4:27pm EST
By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Jan 1 (Reuters) - ...But the rescue operation evaporated on Monday with the rebels and Chavez accusing conservative President Alvaro Uribe of wrecking it by ordering military operations in the jungle region where the three captives were believed to be held ...

Uribe denied the allegation and accused the rebels of lying. Analysts say it will now be very difficult to revive the rescue mission or negotiate the release of other hostages.

"After this, the guerrillas and the government will dig in their heels," political commentator Daniel Coronell said on Tuesday. "The hostages will probably spend years more in the jungle before another serious effort can be mounted to try to free them." ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN01612491

US, Colombia discuss hostage situation

CRAWFORD, Texas (AFP) — US President George W. Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Monday discussed the potential release of three Colombian hostages held by leftist rebels, the White House said.

Uribe gave Bush the latest information about efforts to free the three from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), "noting that various issues were still being worked out," said spokesman Scott Stanzel.

Uribe was set to travel to Villavicencio, Colombia, Monday to meet international guarantors monitoring the potential release, as officials awaited word from the FARC on where and when the handover might occur ...

Bush, poised to ring in 2008 at his Texas ranch, also assured Uribe of his "strong support" for winning US congressional approval of the embattled US-Colombia free trade agreement, said Stanzel ...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hhLx68RZuxJy-OtEFWEu_fduDyIw

Hostage Rescue in Colombia Collapses
By TOBY MUSE

Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and observers from France, Switzerland and four leftist Latin American governments abandoned Villavicencio on Monday, saying only in a terse statement they would "continue their mission" once all conditions for the hostages' release were met ...

Uribe said a 3-year old child named Juan David Gomez, matching the description of Emmanuel provided by escaped hostages and suffering from malnutrition, malaria and jungle-born leishmaniasis, may have been living for the past two and a half years with at a foster home in Bogota.

The child was turned over in the eastern city of San Jose del Guaviare, a FARC stronghold, in 2005 by a man who said he was the boy's great uncle and who now claims to be his father. The boy's mother was reported as disappeared, according to the child welfare agency case file read to journalists by peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo.

The Colombian leader said only DNA tests were required to prove or disprove "this hypothesis" — which he said could be done as soon as the boy's grandmother returns from Caracas, where she was awaiting the handover of her daughter and grandson ... http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4KHTkP2iDNsZIPq48q97-4SvKOQD8TSRD400

Colombian hostage release suspended
Published: Tuesday 01 January 2008 17:16 UTC
Last updated: Tuesday 01 January 2008 17:16 UTC

... Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who is mediating the hostages' release, says Mr Uribe had made the whole thing up in order to torpedo the handover. He said he was calling Emmanuel's grandmother for a DNA test to clear up the issue.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5583307/Colombian-hostage-release-suspended

Colombian hostage release turns on DNA test

CARACAS (AFP) — Relatives of a child born to a hostage mother and a guerrilla father will undergo DNA testing Tuesday to determine whether the child is still a captive or in a Bogota orphanage, as the Colombian president has charged ... In a statement read by Chavez Monday, FARC said it delayed the release because of military operations in the area where it was to take place. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the real reason was that the rebels could not produce Emmanuel Rojas ...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hpPQMMcJ9ruB9gIaMt8it3FcZijg

Colombian hostage release stalls indefinitely

... Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez .. called the child theory "a bunch of smoke." He said he knew "Uribe and his team well. They're a team that makes up things. My experience leads me to doubt Uribe's team and their hypotheses ..."

Chavez later said he would pursue "new options" in the release effort ...

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

But 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 ...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWOJw37T-sNJ7_quPn_H3TDBJPVg

[roguevalley]

7. This is too bad. Very sad.

[ChazII]

8. Did Oliver Stone

get any of this on tape/film?
ETA:
It is sad that the hostages did not get released.

[davidinalameda]

9. it's a plot to make Chavez look bad

[robcon]

10. Any facts to back that up?

It takes two to tango - but your mind is already made up that it was not Farc who put sand in the gears, but Uribe.

It appears Farc got everything they demanded, but did not cooperate. But I await further facts before determining whether there was a "plot."

[davidinalameda]

11. sorry

I forgot the :sarcasm: smiley

[Bacchus39]

12. the plot was to make Uribe look bad of course

and Chavez jumped at the opportunity to get more publicity particularly after his humilating defeat on the referendum.

there is absolutely no need for release of the hostages to be an internationally televised political propaganda event. I mean they could simply let the hostages go.

[High Plains]

13. Or was the plot to make the FARC look bad?

Ooh, so many plot possibilities. Pick the one most pleasing to your ideological sensibilities.

[Bacchus39]

14. the "plot" was hatched by the FARC to begin with

and they certainly have a way of making themselves look bad. that is nothing new.

[High Plains]

15. I really don't know for sure what happened down there.

And, I suspect, neither do you. But don't let that stop you.

[Bacchus39]

16. I know that....

1. the FARC said they would release the 3 HOSTAGES to Hugo or his representative.

2. the FARC could simply release the hostages at any time. there is no need for an international propaganda event or a Hollywood director to document it.

3. the FARC is not a humanitarian organization.

it is actually quite amusing to watch how the Colombian government is being blamed when it is the FARC that is holding these people in captivity.