News
Chavez Pledges to Step Up Efforts to Free Hostages
By John Otis
The Houston Chronicle
May 14, 2008
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela pledged Wednesday to renew his efforts to liberate dozens of high-profile hostages held by Colombian rebels.
The hostages held in the Colombian jungle include three American defense contractors, who were kidnapped in 2003 when their surveillance plane crashed in southern Colombia, and Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate abducted in 2002.
In a telephone call to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made freeing Betancourt - a duel French-Colombian citizen - a top priority, Chavez said he promised to "continue to do everything possible."
A socialist who is admired by the guerrillas, Chavez earlier this year brokered the release of six hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's oldest and largest rebel army.
Rebel spokesman killed
But in March, a Colombian army raid on a rebel encampment just across the border in Ecuador killed FARC spokesman Raul Reyes. Before his death, Reyes had been the main contact for Chavez, French officials and others seeking to free the hostages.
Since then, Chavez said he has been unable to communicate with FARC leaders.
Also complicating matters is an ongoing war of words between Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America.
Under growing pressure last year to free the hostages, Uribe turned to Chavez, naming him an official mediator with the FARC. But he pulled the plug on Chavez's role a few months later, which infuriated the Venezuelan.
In a show of support, the FARC released two hostages to Chavez's envoys in January and four more in February. It was the first time the FARC had unilaterally freed hostages in seven years.
The FARC, which has been fighting since 1964, kidnaps civilians for ransom but also abducts high-profile politicians and soldiers with an eye on bartering them for imprisoned guerrillas.
Encouraged efforts
Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico traveled to South America last month at the behest of the relatives of the three American hostages - Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes.
Richardson, who has helped free hostages in other trouble spots around the globe, met with Uribe and Chavez and urged the Venezuelan leader to continue his freelance efforts.
"There's daylight," Richardson said after the meetings. "I do believe that it's going to take a little bit of time, but I see hope."
However, Luis Eladio Perez, a former Colombian senator who was released by the rebels in February, said Wednesday that freedom for the three Americans hinges on a deal involving two FARC rebels who were extradited to the U.S.
Anncol, a Web site that frequently publishes FARC communiqués, said that the rebel position was: "Give me my two guerrillas, take your three spies."
But in January, one of the guerrillas, Simon Trinidad, received a 60-year sentence for conspiracy to kidnap the Americans. The sentence infuriated the FARC.
Nothing off the table
Speaking in Washington where he is on a weeklong trip to call attention to the plight of the hostages, Perez urged the U.S. government to reduce the prison terms of the two rebels, send them back to Colombia, or turn them over to a third country.
U.S. officials have declared that there would be no deals for hostages held by the FARC, which has been blacklisted by the State Department as a terrorist group. But William Brownfield, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia, said that if major progress is made toward the release of the Americans, "anything is possible."
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