The Colombian government gave on Wednesday its formal
authorization to a Venezuelan government plan to collect three
people held by Colombia's largest rebel army, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Colombia's Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said that Colombia
thanks Venezuela and its President Hugo Chavez, for its efforts to
free the three hostages and added that its only condition was that
the helicopters that entered Colombia from Venezuela should all
have the Red Cross emblem.
Araujo, who had been a guerrilla hostage and escaped in early
2007, also said that the Colombian government's high commissioner
for peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, must represent Colombia at the
handover.
Chavez had told media earlier on Wednesday that all he was
waiting for was for Colombian government authorization for the
helicopters to fly out from Venezuela to "some spot" in Colombia to
pick up three hostages that the FARC had on Dec. 9 said they would
release.
The three are former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez, former
Colombia vice-presidential candidate Clara Rojas, and Emmanuel,
Rojas's son born in captivity.
Under the Chavez plan, aircraft will travel into Colombia
bearing envoys from France, Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador,
Venezuela and Bolivia to support the hostage release operation.
Chavez did not say if the French envoy would give the FARC any
special petition for Ingrid Betancourt, a French citizen and former
Colombian presidential candidate kidnapped in February 2002 at the
same time as Rojas.
Chavez had said that once the helicopters had picked up the
three hostages, they would fly to a secret location in either
Venezuela or Ecuador, both Colombia's neighbors.
At the early Wednesday conference, Chavez had urged Colombia not
to try what he described as a "clandestine rescue" and to avoid
putting hostages' lives at risk or frustrating the swap.
(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)
