Former Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba told President Juan Manuel Santos that the FARC was willing to release the four executed hostages, Spanish newspaper Gara reported Monday.
The four captives were executed Saturday during an armed forces offensive. Former Senator Cordoba said she informed the Colombian head of state of the FARC’s intention in a letter.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper, Cordoba said, “I personally sent a letter to meet with him [Santos] and tell him that the soldiers and police were to be handed over.”
Cordoba claimed that the FARC had sent a letter on Friday to Colombians for Peace – of which she is a member – expressing its willingness to release six hostages.
Cordoba argued that while the FARC was executing the hostages, Colombia had in its power the ability to take them out alive. She called the executions a “defeat of the government’s policy.”
The former senator also went on to blame Santos for the tragedy saying, “The president is responsible for what happened because there were other ways and means of handling it.”
The bodies of the fallen hostages were brought to Bogota to be reunited with their families where they were honored in a state funeral.
