Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would meet with the families of hostages held by Colombia's largest rebel group and is willing to help mediate peace talks between the guerrillas and the Colombian government.
"I've put myself at all of Colombia's service," Chavez said Thursday following a meeting with Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, who has received permission to serve as peace mediator with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) over a possible humanitarian exchange.
Chavez said he spoke with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Thursday, but did not elaborate.
The FARC is holding hundreds of hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US defense contractors, whom they say they will free in exchange for the release of imprisoned guerrillas and a temporary demilitarized zone.
It was not immediately clear who Chavez would meet with or where. But he said recently he would like to meet with Colombian rebel leaders to discuss ways to end the neighboring country's decades-long armed conflict involving government troops, leftist insurgents and paramilitary groups.
Chavez said that Colombian officials had shown little interest in Venezuela getting involving in such conversations, saying: "We should take this issue up, but nobody wants to take it up."
Despite the deep ideological differences between Chavez and Uribe they have worked to maintain relations between their countries, which are bound by trade and concerns about security along a border frequented by rebels, paramilitary fighters and drug traffickers.
The FARC has declared its support for Chavez but he has never endorsed the rebels while maintaining a neutral stance regarding Colombia's armed conflict.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in