Dead Colombian rebel was France's hostage contact

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Dead Colombian rebel was France's hostage contact
Mon Mar 3, 2008 11:55am GMT

PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - A rebel commander killed by Colombian forces was France's contact in negotiations aimed at winning the release of hostage Ingrid Betancourt, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday.

"It is bad news that the man we were talking to, with whom we had contacts, has been killed," Kouchner told France Inter radio. "Do you see how ugly the world is?"

Colombia's military said on Saturday its troops had killed Raul Reyes, considered by analysts to be number two in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), dealing a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.

The killing came days after a former FARC hostage said Betancourt had been mistreated and kept in chains, had a serious liver problem and was mentally exhausted.

Betancourt is a former Colombian presidential candidate who also holds French nationality. She has been held hostage in the Colombian jungle for six years and her plight has become a major political issue in France.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUSL03135126

[ck4829]

1. Weren't there also mysterious explosions in Colombia when some...

of the hostages were being released?

Found it - It was a rocket that someone was aiming at the Venezuelans.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22421228/

[Judi Lynn]

3. Absolutely. The hostages said, during later interviews, after they were lifted out to Venezuela,

that the first attempt to return them had them walking and walking through jungle, with the promise that Uribe would keep his forces from firing on them. She said that they were continually bombarded with explosions until they became so frightened they couldn't continue and returned.

At that point, Uribe spent his quality time as a political opportunity to tell the international press that FARCs were liars, etc., and the subject of hostages was simply shelved until enough international pressure was created, and hostages' families begged Hugo Chavez to mediate another attempt to try to get them out again.

[EFerrari]

2. Well, these idiots probably just killed Betancourt. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

4. Yup! If the hostages are finally returned, where the heck will Uribe get his megabucks for war? n/t

[Bacchus39]

5. the FARC are the ones who kidnapped Betancourt, the FARC is responsible for her

n/t

[Peace Patriot]

7. Here's what the hostages themselves were saying about who is responsible for

Betancourt, Bacchus39:

Chavez, freed FARC hostages call for political solution to Colombian conflict
February 29th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com
Luis Eladio Pérez and Gloria Polanco speaking at the press conference in Caracas (Reuters)

Caracas, March 1, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called for international mediation group to negotiate a humanitarian accord in neighboring Colombia, after a successful Venezuelan led humanitarian mission secured the release of four former legislators held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on Wednesday.

During a telephone call to state owned VTV Thursday, Chavez indicated that France, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina as well as the Organization of American States support such a move. It is "essential" that Venezuela is part of any international mediation group, because "the FARC have demonstrated that they don't believe in anyone else," he added.

In a communiqué, released minutes after the hostage handover the FARC said this would be the last unilateral hostage release. The FARC reiterated their longstanding call for a military free zone as a precondition for any further negotiations for a humanitarian exchange of 40 remaining high profile hostages for 500 imprisoned guerrillas. However, the Colombian government immediately rejected this proposal.

Chavez said the desire for peace by the majority of Colombians and that the pressure of world opinion would force Uribe to change his position.

"President Uribe is going to have to change his position. Everybody is in agreement except for Uribe, " he declared.

Speaking at a press conference in Caracas on Thursday night, the former Colombian legislators, Luis Eladio Pérez, Jorge Gechem, Orlando Beltrán and Gloria Polanco, also spoke out in favor of a military free zone to facilitate a humanitarian exchange.

"I publicly challenge President Alvaro Uribe to demonstrate the success of his policy of democratic security and clear the military from the municipalities of Pradera and Florida and after 45 days the Armed Forces can recuperate this territory," Perez said after his liberation. "The solution is political, Mr. President Uribe," he repeated twice during the press conference.

"If you persist in the foolishness of insisting on a military rescue you are going to receive, Mr President Uribe, 40 or 50 corpses. It is absurd to think of a military rescue with the conditions that we had in captivity. There would be a massacre," Pérez stressed.

He revealed that the four recently liberated ex legislators have a proposal to present "to President Uribe, the President (of France Nicholas) Sarkozy and, of course, to President (of Venezuela, Hugo) Chavez." This proposal would only be made public after the three heads of state had been informed, he said.

Pérez who classified the FARC as a "political military group who use terrorist practices" also referred to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, captured by the guerrillas in 2001, who he said is in a "very bad state of health."

In a message released in 2003 demonstrating Betancourt's proof of life, the former presidential candidate indicated that she was opposed any form of military rescue, as she feared a repeat of the tragedy that occurred in May that year when ex governor of Antioquia, Gilberto Echeverri, and the del ex Defense Minister, Guillermo Gaviria, died during a botched military rescue ordered by Uribe.

Betancourt maintains this position Perez said, however she is also conscious "of the high risk and lack of commitment of the President of the Republic."

In contrast Betancourt calls for a political solution to the conflict based on the Geneva Convention and believes that "fundamentally President Uribe has to recognize the political status of the FARC guerrillas," Perez said.

Pérez also affirmed that after an attempted escape, Betancourt, "remained chained up during the night," and her captors, "humiliated her, obliged her to walk barefoot, tied her to trees and rationed her food."

Ex congressman Orlando Beltrán condemned "all terrorist acts, wherever they come from. I condemn the terrorism of the FARC, of the paramilitaries and the terrorism of the State." He pointed out that Colombia "is the only country in the world that has disappeared an entire political movement, more than six thousand leaders of Unión Patriótica were disappeared, to speak only of this case."

Under a previous peace accord in the 1980's the FARC demobilized and formed Unión Patriótica, however after they laid down their arms thousands of former guerrillas were hunted down by paramilitaries, backed by the Colombian state, and massacred, forcing them back into the armed struggle.

Beltrán added that the Colombian State "has to assume responsibility and understand that they must create the conditions to achieve a humanitarian accord. I don't understand why, when make these handovers in a unilateral manner, they say they are not going to clear the military from a centimeter of the national territory."

Gloria Polanco asserted, "It is necessary to reach the heart of President Uribe, to speak to him, to explain, because he has to understand that if he does not clear the military from Pradera and Florida, which is what the FARC ask, our comrades will die in captivity."

"I am asking for a humanitarian accord, because they have to place value on life, not on a piece of land, not on a piece of territory," she said.

All four ex-legislators confirmed that they would participate in an international day of action organized by human rights organizations on March 6 in protest against paramilitary violence in Colombia. Uribe has condemned the protest scheduled to take place in some 150 cities around the world, claiming it is organized by the FARC.

(emphasis added)
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3213
(Note: Venezuela Analysis is a Fair Use web site.)

------------------------------

And please see the following thread for my opinion of your comments...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2957407

[Bacchus39]

6. the FARC are the ones who kidnapped Betancourt, the FARC is responsible for her

n/t

[DrCory]

9. Silly Goose...

Don't you realize by now that anti-capitalists are never responsible for their actions?

[Peace Patriot]

10. Got anything to say that is fact-based and reasonable? Or are you just going to keep

repeating your narrow little Freeper point?

This is a 40+ year CIVIL WAR in Colombia. The last time the FARC tried to demobilize, they were greeted with a massacre then, too. This civil war is the Colombian government's money train. WE are paying for it! THEY. DON'T. WANT. PEACE! They have sabotaged every effort at settling this conflict. Now Rumsfeld & co. are using it to stir up shit in our own hemisphere, in their greedy, obsessional, murderous quest for more oil. And if you want to throw accusations back and forth--the fuel of civil war--how about Amnesty International's documentation of the Colombian government's slaughter of thousands of union leaders in Colombia? That is WHY there IS a FARC! That is WHY people live in the jungle with rifles! Take away 40 years of the torture and murder of leftist political organizers--no FARC! No motive to take up arms in SELF-DEFENSE! No motive to kidnap people and try to get your compadres out of Colombian torture chambers!

It's a WAR! There have been crimes on both sides. When do you stop killing? When? 10 years from now? 20 years from now? Ever? You stop killing when people like the President of Venezuela and the President of France risk their reputations to broker a peace. The Colombian government has now tried to kill that hope. THEY. DON'T. WANT. PEACE! Could they make it any clearer? They murdered the FARC NEGOTIATOR!

[subsuelo]

12. You really understand the situation

Thanks for the post

[Pavulon]

14. Killed a communist and terrorist

US policy for decades in Latin America. Bet the rounds were made in Lake City..

They shot the number two in line to run the FARC. Occupational hazard for communistas in LA.


To bad they did not take him hostage, bet he has some useful info in his noggin.

[bemildred]

8. Mission Accomplished! nt

[countryjake]

11. Wish I could have recommended this!

But I can still kick it!

[Pavulon]

13. Guess they need another inside man

since the terrorist they were talking to is now dead. So they killed the communist who is keeping her in chains.

To bad he was not taken alive. Bad idea to shoot a guy with useful intelligence.

Just a thought, that guy would sure wish he was dead if they managed to grab him alive.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Kick.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: