Colombia’s largest guerrilla group FARC revealed Tuesday the names of three of six hostages who are expected to be released in the coming month.
In a statement to former senator and member of human rights group Colombians for Peace, Piedad Cordoba, the FARC announced that they will release police officers Jorge Trujillo Solarte, Jorge Humberto Romero and Jose Libardo Forero, along with three others yet to be named.
An exact date has still not been confirmed, but according to Carlos Lozano, director of a communist magazine and member of Cordoba‘s human rights group, the releases of the hostages would be “realized the second half of January,”
The three named men to be released have been under FARC custody since they were kidnapped nearly 13 years ago during a guerrilla attack on their police station in the central municipality of Puerto Rico, Meta on July 10, 1999.
The FARC hold 11 members of the Colombian security forces captive in the jungle. The group also holds an unknown number of civilians hostage for extortion purposes.