Seven former FARC hostages publicly asked the Colombian Government
to stop delaying the release of a hostage, who has been in FARC
captivity for more than 11 years.
The release of soldier Pablo Emilio Moncayo is deadlocked, because the rebels demand the involvement of Piedad Cordoba, who President Alvaro Uribe accuses of helping the FARC. Uribe said he wouldn not allow Cordoba to mediate the release.
“We are very worried about the delay in the process of working out logistical details that will secure this much-desired freedom,” the hostages said, adding the Government should “pave the paths” that lead to the release of Moncoya.
“We call on the National Government, the country, on the Presidents of Latin America and the international community not to give up on the efforts to end the suffering of an important number of servers of the homeland and their families,” the former hostages added.
Signers Alan Jara, Consuelo Gonzalez, Clara Rojas, Sigifredo Lopez, Orlando Beltran, Oscar Tulio Lizcano and Luis Eladio Perez were all released by the guerrillas after February 2008.
Two of them, Alan Jara and Sigifredo Lopez, ask the President to accept the involvement of Cordoba and allow her to secure the release of Moncayo.
According to the former hostages, the opposition senator “is the only one who has got results and a government, no matter how popular it may be, can not interfere in the surrender that above all is a gesture to save a life.”
Cordoba secured the release of a number of hostages throughout 2008 and 2009, but is considered to be an aide of the FARC by the government.