The Colombian government reacted angrily Wednesday to a FARC video naming the six hostages it planned to release, reported newspaper El Espectador.
Responding to a video in which FARC commander Ivan Marquez revealed which security force members would be set free, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said a “publicity show” was unnecessary.
“This organization, which uses terrorist methods and illegal activities such as drug trafficking, does not have the right to carry on playing with the lives of people like these hostages who have spent more than 13 years in captivity, and the lives of their families,” said the minister.
The government was sick of all the games, Pinzon said, challenging the rebels to stop talking and take action. “If you want to free them, free them right now, today, tomorrow; tell us where they are and we will come for them. Because if one has the will to release a person tortured by the scourge of kidnapping, one can do it immediately.”
The FARC refused to acknowledge the reality of what it had done, claimed the minister, by using humanitarian expressions to describe the practice of kidnapping, when in fact it had simply used its hostages as “political capital.”
Ivan Marquez said in Wednesday’s video that the imminent release of six security force members, which has been planned for some time, followed a request from ex-senator Pieded Cordoba and other peace activists.
Another five members of the security forces are being held by the FARC, alongside an unknown number of civilians.
