FARC Release More Hostages

Above: Gloria Palanco

This Wednesday, four politician hostages were freed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after seven years of captivity. Their release was coordinated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The release was made to clean up the rebel group’s name; as they are considered as a terrorist group by different nations of the international community — one of which is the European Union.

One of the freed captives, former congresswoman Gloria Polanco (pictured above) had this to say, “You’ve given me the opportunity to live again,” in her gratitude to President Chavez. Her husband, Huila governor Jaime Lozada, was assassinated by the FARC in 2005.

In her speech inside the presidential palace, Polanco asked further help from Chavez. There are other hostages left with the FARC and one of them is former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt who was kidnapped in 2002 while campaigning in an area controlled by the FARC:

“As a woman and a mother, I ask from my heart here in front of everyone that you fight to get Ingrid free as soon as possible,” Polanco said almost in tears. “She is very ill, President, very ill. She has recurrent hepatitis B and is near the end.”

At this, President Chavez turned to the cameras and said (apparently to sort of speak to the FARC rebel leader Manuel Marulanda): “Change Ingrid’s location. Move her to a base closer to you, while we continue working to pave the way for her definitive release.”

Also released with Polanco was former senator Luis Eladio Perez. He said he last saw Betancourt two weeks ago and that she was in very poor shape: “It’s a question of time. We need to take immediate action to obtain Ingrid’s liberation.”

Below is the last picture taken of Ingrid Betancourt:

The two other freed hostages were former Huila congressman Orlando Beltran, and former senator Jorge Gechem.

According to reports, one of the conditions for the release of the other captives was to have “a trade of prisoners.” The Colombian government holds hundreds of FARC guerillas as prisoners.

In a statement, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe thanked Chavez for his participation in the matter. It is a known fact that these presidents are not in good terms and there are several reasons for that; but the biggest reason is because the rebels have an intriguing partiality towards Chavez – whom they have been in talks with since last year. Chavez has also called for the international community to remove the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations.

Above: File photo of President Chavez, whom the rebels prefer over Uribe

The FARC has been fighting Colombian government forces for more than 40 years already. Their Marxist-Leninist movement revolves around fighting for a more equitable distribution of wealth in Colombia. But in recent years, the group has been involved in kidnapping and drug trafficking. Such heinous acts were used to produce the necessary funds to continue the existence of the movement. And due to the nature of these “fund raising activities,” the rebel group was listed as terrorists by the European Union, the United States and Canada, and the Colombian government.

In recent news, the FARC has released a statement threatening to start kidnapping Panamanian officials. This was in retaliation for the capture of six FARC rebels by the Panama police. One of their commanders, a certain Bercerro, said that the Panama government has until March to free their comrades:

“If they do not comply with this, we have instructions to take necessary hostages from among members of the national police, officials and local politicians to force an exchange.”

Above: File photo of a young FARC guerilla

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