Venezuela President
Urges FARC To Free All
Hostages
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez Sunday urged
the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
to unilaterally free all
its hostages and end the
decades of armed
conflict in Colombia.
Nothing justified the
presence of armed
movements in Latin
America, Chavez said at
a diplomatic gathering
in the northwest state
of Falcon attended by
Chinese and Iranian
ambassadors to
Venezuela.
"At this point a
guerilla movement is out
of place in Latin
America," Chavez said,
adding that it was time
for FARC to free all the
hostages they keep in
Colombia's mountains.
"It would be a great
humanitarian gesture in
exchange for nothing,"
Chavez said.
"FARC should know that
it has become an excuse
for the United States to
threaten all Latin
America, and FARC
provides the perfect
excuse for saying there
are terrorist groups in
Latin America," he said.
The Venezuelan president
said that an eventual
release of the hostages
would be the first step
to ending internal
violence and creating
the conditions for a
peace process in
Colombia.
He urged the new FARC
commander "Alfonso Cano"
who replaced founder
Manuel Marulanda after
he died from a heart
attack on March 26, to
free all the hostages,
who include the sick,
the elderly, women and
former government
soldiers.
Chavez also proposed
international mediation
involving Argentina,
Brazil, Ecuador, France,
Spain, Portugal and
perhaps the Vatican, in
addition to intervention
from the Organization of
American States (OAS).
Since September 2007,
Chavez has mediated with
FARC, trying to reach a
deal for a hostage swap
between some 40 hostages
and about 500 FARC
rebels jailed by
Colombia.
Early this year, FARC
released six hostages.
Chavez said he lost
contact with the rebel
group following a
Colombian raid on a FARC
camp in Ecuadorian
territory where FARC's
No.2 commander RaulReyes
was killed.
Recently FARC has lost
several top leaders in
addition to Marulanda,
who was believed to have
been in his late 70s,
and Reyes. Analysts say
this provided an
unprecedented
opportunity for the
hostage release.
FARC now holds 750
hostages, including 39
high-profile hostages.
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