[Marxism] Colombia shows proof FARC hostages alive

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Colombia shows proof FARC hostages alive
Fri Nov 30, 2007 5:48am EST
By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - The Colombian government broadcast videos on
Friday of kidnapped politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans
in the first proof since 2003 that the high-profile rebel hostages
were still alive.

The videos, which also showed Colombian military officers kidnapped
by guerrillas, were confiscated from three suspected rebels captured
in Bogota and included images from October, Peace Commissioner Luis
Carlos Restrepo said.

Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen and former presidential
candidate captured in 2002, and the Americans are among the most
well-known captives held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia rebels waging Latin America's oldest insurgency.

"In a Colombian army operation against the FARC's urban networks,
three people were captured and in their possession was found proof of
life of a group of kidnap victims," said Restrepo.

Brief clips of the videos broadcast by local television showed images
of Betancourt sitting in jungle surroundings and the Americans. U.S.
contractors Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell were
snatched by the FARC when their aircraft crashed on a
counter-narcotics mission.

Restrepo said photographs and letters from hostages were also found.

"All we see is a single photo where she is sitting at a small table
and appears fairly thin, with very, very long hair. She is looking
down. I had the feeling that her hand was chained. It's a sad image
of my sister, but she is alive," Betancourt's sister Astrid told LCI
television in France.

FIRST STEP

French President Nicolas Sarkozy played a key role in recent efforts
to broker a deal to free FARC hostages in exchange for jailed rebel
fighters. Earlier this year, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe freed a
FARC commander to try to broker talks and in August invited
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to mediate.

Sarkozy said the findings were encouraging.

"Now that we know she is alive, we must fight relentlessly to obtain
her release and an end to this ordeal as quickly as possible,"
Sarkozy told reporters in Nice.

The FARC wants to exchange around 50 hostages for jailed rebels, but
efforts by Chavez to broker a hostage deal fell apart after Colombia
suspended his role as mediator.

Uribe said the Venezuelan leftist had broken with protocol by
contacting a top Colombian military chief without permission.

The failed hostage release efforts triggered a diplomatic spat
between Uribe and Chavez, who has said he will have no relations with
Colombia while Uribe is in office.

Started in the 1960s as a leftist insurgency, the FARC is now deeply
engaged in Colombia's cocaine trade and has kidnapped scores of
police, soldiers, business owners and lawmakers for ransom and
political leverage.

While violence from Colombia's 40-year-old conflict has ebbed under
Uribe, the conservative leader is under pressure to resolve the
plight of hostages still held in secret jungle camps, some for as
long as nearly a decade.

Negotiations over the FARC hostages have been stalled over rebel
demands Uribe demilitarize an area the size of New York City in
southern Colombia as a condition for talks. The U.S. ally has refused
such a safe haven under rebel terms saying it would allow the FARC to
regroup.

(Additional reporting by Laure Bretton and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris;
Editing by Doina Chiacu)


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