Colombian hostages plead for asylum in Venezuela

A video released by Colombian guerrillas aired yesterday showing 12 kidnapped lawmakers pleading with their government to work with Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez to help obtain their release.

The video, which aired on Colombia’s Caracol television station, was the first sign in 15 months that the provincial congressmen might still be alive. Leftist rebels dressed as police officers seized the men in April 2002 from a government building in the city of Cali, 190 miles southwest of the capital of Bogota.