Chavez organises hostages' rescue mission
Colombian rebels today provided a pick-up location for two hostages they have held for years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, and the Colombian government gave him the green light to launch a rescue mission.
Chavez said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, sent him the co-ordinates to pick up Clara Rojas – an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt – and former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez.
“This morning we received the co-ordinates there in the Colombian mountains where Clara and Consuelo are,” Chavez said during a televised speech. “Hopefully, Clara and Consuelo will be free in the coming hours.”
Colombia’s government responded promptly, saying it was agreeing to the mission. Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said his government would “provide all the necessary guarantees” so the hostages can “return home as soon as possible.”
He said the mission would be overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Chavez said Venezuela was ready to send helicopters with Red Cross officials to a rebel stronghold in the eastern Colombian state of Guaviare on Thursday.
“Hopefully early tomorrow, the Venezuelan helicopters with the Red Cross will leave from some point in Venezuelan territory to look for these two Colombian patriots and finally attain their freedom,” he said.
Chavez did not explain how he obtained the co-ordinates.
Chavez’s statements came just over a week after a failed mission for the release of Rojas and Gonzalez, along with a three-year-old Colombian boy named Emmanuel – the product of a relationship between Rojas and a guerrilla fighter.
The guerrillas accused Colombia’s military of sabotaging the promised hand-off, saying they couldn’t release the hostages due to military operations staged by Colombia’s military.
But the US-backed government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the guerrillas backed out of the deal brokered by Chavez because didn’t have the child hostage as they’d claimed.
Results of a Colombian DNA test later proved Emmanuel has been in a Bogota foster home for more than two years, rather than held captive in the jungle.
A Colombian official said that a second DNA analysis by the University of Santiago Compostela in Spain confirmed the boy in the foster home was indeed Emmanuel.
The official with the prosecutor’s office spoke on condition of anonymity. The laboratory is expected to officially announce the results by week’s end.
Gonzalez’s daughter, Patricia Perdomo, told state television in Venezuela that she was hopeful Chavez’s announcement would help bring about her mother’s release.
“We are very happy, very content knowing that – God willing – my mother could be free tomorrow,” she said.
The FARC are holding some 46 high-profile hostages – including three American defence contractors and the French-Colombian Betancourt – hoping to swap them for hundreds of jailed rebels.
