The six hostages who Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC promised to
release, will be free in the first days of January, opposition senator
Piedad Córdoba said Sunday.
Córdoba — involved in a correspondence with the guerrillas about a political solution to the country’s 44-year violent conflict — told Caracol Radio she hopes the release of the two politicians and four members of the security forces will go smoothly and says the release of the hostages is because of the efforts of her and 150 Colombian intellectuals to start a dialogue with the leftist insurgents.
The opposition senator said the “abduction of ten people in the department of Meta [Sunday] forces all of us to continue looking ways out of the armed conflict.”
The FARC is suspected of abducting at least ten farmers 100 kilometers south of Bogotá on the same day it announced the release of six.
According to Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, the mass abduction shows the double standards of the FARC. On the same day the rebels said they “show their will” for a political solution , they took ten new hostages.
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe showed a similar skepticism about the release of the hostages and prohibits any foreign government or person to be involved in the release. According to Uribe, only the International Red Cross may be involved in the release to avoid a “show” orchestrated by the guerrillas.
The group of intellectuals and relatives of the soon to be released hostages asked the government to guarantee a swift and safe release of the hostages.