Chavez tells Colombian rebels to lay down arms

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged Colombian rebels to lay down their weapons, unilaterally free dozens of hostages and end a decades-long armed struggle.

Mr Chavez sent the uncharacteristic message to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, saying their ongoing efforts to overthrow Colombia’s democratically elected government were unjustified.

“The guerrilla war is history,” Mr Chavez said during his weekly television and radio programme. “At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place.”

Such declarations were unexpected from Mr Chavez, who has long been accused of giving the rebels refuge.

A self-described socialist, he called on world governments to remove the FARC from terrorist lists earlier this year, suggesting the group is in fact a legitimate insurgency.

Colombia’s government claims that a laptop recovered from a FARC camp in March shows a history of deep collaboration between the rebels and Mr Chavez - something the Venezuelan leader denies.

However, addressing FARC’s new leader Alfonso Cano yesterday, Mr Chavez said, “I think the time has come for the FARC to free everyone they have in the mountains. It would be a great, humanitarian gesture, in exchange for nothing.”

He continued: “You in the FARC should know something: You have become an excuse for the empire to threaten all of us,” he said, referring to the US. “The day that peace arrives in Colombia, the empire will have no excuses.”