Colombia, Switzerland at odds over mediator
Colombia accuses Jean-Pierre Gontard, who has been involved in hostage-release talks with the FARC, of being a money courier for the rebels. The Swiss say his work was 'exclusively humanitarian.'
By Patrick J. McDonnell and Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
July 25, 2008
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- A diplomatic dispute has broken out between Colombia and Switzerland over the role of a Swiss mediator involved in hostage-release talks with leftist rebels.
Colombia cut off the longtime European mediation effort after the July 2 rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, including three U.S. contractors. Colombian officials have suggested that the Swiss mediator, Jean-Pierre Gontard, exceeded his authority and became a money courier for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
In response, the Swiss government last week called on Bogota to stop attacking the Geneva-based academic. The work of Gontard and a French mediator was "exclusively humanitarian," the Swiss said in a statement.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has long been irked by what he views as an overly benign vision among some European leftists of the FARC, which raises funds through cocaine trafficking and ransoms from its kidnapping victims.
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