Colombia Okays New FARC Talks
The Colombian government authorized France, Spain and Switzerland to hold new talks with FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) to achieve a humanitarian agreement for exchange of prisoners.

High Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo reiterated to press that these three European countries, which proposed such humanitarian exchange last year, have been authorized to contact FARC.

The three nations expressed their willingness to re-establish Government-FARC talks after President Alvaro Uribe suspended talks with the rebel group that he held responsible for a car bomb explosion in a military center.

Besides canceling contacts with FARC, Uribe ordered an attempted rescue of people held by the guerrillas as well as the capture of the main leaders, something the prisoners familes considered dangerous.

In these two months none of the people detained have been rescued nor has any member of the rebel leadership been captured.

The high commissioner revealed the three European nations offered to meet with FARC a month ago, but there was a misunderstanding in communication.

FARC and the government have been trying for nearly four years to exchange 58 prisoners for 500 FARC men imprisoned in Colombia and the United States.

The humanitarian agreement has been unsuccessful due to confrontations between the two, mainly on the part of the Colombian government that had not agreed to clear territory for peaceful negotiations and the exchange itself, as demanded by FARC.