Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday pressed his efforts to play a role as intermediary with Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, urging his Colombian counterpart to let him meet in Colombia with the guerillas' chief, and suggesting France's leader could join the talks.
"President [Alvaro] Uribe asked me to help. I want to help. I make the formal request before the world: let me talk with [Manuel] Marulanda in Colombia," Chavez said on television, naming the head of the guerrilla movement.
Chavez asked Uribe to come too, adding that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had offered to come with him to meet Marulanda in Caguan, southern Colombia.
"Accompany me," Chavez said, addressing Uribe. "Sarkozy told me that he can even come with me to Caguan."
"I am trying to mediate and I will continue. I have made a plan, but here the help of the Colombian government and the rebels is a must," he said. "I want to be helpful, but the Colombian people have to help me. If the Colombian government and the rebels remain inflexible, what am I supposed to do?"
But in Colombia the conservative Uribe, the US' close regional ally, swiftly nixed the idea.
The leftist Venezuelan leader has sought to use his influence to mediate between the Marxist guerrillas and Uribe, in part by trying to negotiate the release of 45 hostages held by FARC.
They have demanded in return the release of hundreds of their own members held by Colombian authorities.
Among those held by FARC is a high-profile hostage, the dual nationality French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. Sarkozy has pressed for a "humanitarian accord" to secure the hostages' release. Betancourt was seized in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidential election.
On Friday, at a gathering in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Chavez indicated he had received a message from Marulanda but did not address the content.
Earlier, Colombia's government indicated it did not want Chavez to travel to Colombia to negotiate a hostage swap with FARC.
Then on Saturday, asked about Chavez's remarks, Uribe appeared to reiterate this stance.
"What already has been said does not need to be repeated," Uribe told local radio in Rionegro, Colombia.
"Don't ask me to talk about these things publicly," Uribe told reporters. "You already know my position on that."
Over his more than six years of government, Uribe has said his administration would not demilitarize any part of Colombian territory to negotiate with FARC rebels, which was done during the government of his predecessor Andres Pastrana, in an effort to get peace talks started.
FARC is Latin America's largest and longest-fighting insurgency.
France, the US and Argentina have welcomed the Venezuelan leader's efforts to mediate.
FARC, whose hostages also include three Americans, want the government to create a demilitarized zone to conduct the exchange, but Uribe has refused to provide such a safe haven.
Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Luis Carlos Restrepo warned earlier this month that Bogota believed direct intervention by Chavez was not viable.
‘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