Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC demanded Saturday the Colombian government allows hostage negotiator Piedad Cordoba a visit to imprisoned FARC guerrillas before the rebels release ten hostages they promised to set free.
The new condition to the last of the groups political hostages was announced in a press release on the FARC’s website.
According to the rebels, they are “ready to begin the process of liberations,” but say that “the only thing that is missing is that president Juan Manuel Santos allows the humanitarian visit of [Cordoba-led peace group] World Women for Peace to the political prisoners and [prisoners] of war.”
In a response on Twitter, the former senator said to “trust the Colombian government … will allow the visit to imprisoned guerrillas.”
The “humanitarian visit” had not been a condition to release the hostages until after the government refused to allow Cordoba’s a visit to jailed FARC fighters aimed to “humanize the conflict, ensure the implementation of international humanitarian law, and promote serious mediation instead of conflict.”
The government initially granted Cordoba premission to visit the FARC guerrillas “on humanitarian grounds” but withdrew this permission after it felt Cordoba was using her visit “as a ‘down payment’ in the peace process between the guerrillas and the government.”
Authorities on Saturday did not respond to the latest FARC condition.