President Juan Manuel Santos has announced that he is still evaluating how best to proceed with the release of the final two FARC hostages, reports El Tiempo.
The president stated that the government is now considering carrying out the release mission by land but needs absolute clarity on the conditions of the release from the FARC before it can take a decision.
This announcement came after a day of meetings held between the president, the Red Cross and members of state security agencies.
President Santos added that the presidential palace, “has not authorized, nor will authorize, anyone to have contact with groups outside of the law.”
This statement is an apparent allusion to Cordoba’s request on Sunday to act as a mediator in any future peace negotiations between the government and the rebel group.
The release of Salin Sanmiguel and Guillermo Solorzano, the final two hostages scheduled to be freed last week, failed on Sunday as the FARC allegedly provided the wrong coordinates for the release site.
The failure sparked a furious response from the government delegate to the operations, Eduardo Pizarro.
While Cordoba requested that the operation resume on Monday at 6:00AM, the government announced instead that the mission would be suspended until they had met with the Red Cross to decide on its fate.