Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels of killing 11 state lawmakers in cold blood, appealing to Colombians on live television after the guerrillas said the hostages died in the crossfire of a military attack.
Uribe denied on Thursday that a rescue attempt was made for the hostages. He said there were no such military operations on June 18, the date the FARC said the attack occurred, in zones where the hostages are thought to have been held.
The news highlights the precarious state of the more than 3,000 people held in captivity by various Colombian armed factions, including three US defense contractors seized four years ago by the hemisphere's oldest and most potent insurgency.
PHOTO: AFP
"The FARC wants to blame these deaths on the armed forces," said Uribe, whose father was killed by the rebel band two decades ago. "The FARC wants to hide this crime against humanity that it committed."
The FARC statement, e-mailed to news organizations, said 11 of the 12 former provincial deputies were killed in the crossfire after an "unidentified military group" attacked a rebel camp. The statement said the 12th lawmaker, Sigifredo Lopez, was not with the others at the time.
There was no way to independently confirm the claim.
With the announcements, hopes dimmed for a prisoner swap with leftist rebels. Earlier this month Uribe agreed to free the highest ranking FARC rebel held in prison and 150 FARC guerrillas in a "gesture of good faith."
But rebels rejected the move, demanding the temporary demilitarization of a zone near Cali for a complete swap of all FARC prisoners for the hostages, something Uribe has ruled out.
Jo Rosano, the mother of kidnapped US contractor Marc Gonsalves, expressed exasperation with Uribe.
"I don't trust that man one bit," she told reporters by telephone from Connecticut. "If we're close to any type of humanitarian exchange, it's sabotaged."
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion