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Weather slows FARC hostage pickup

"We have a little problem, which is that we don't have the exact coordinates of where they are or are going to be."

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela

Two Venezuelan helicopters landed in Colombia on Friday for a mission to pick up three hostages, including a three-year-old boy, to be freed by Marxist rebels in the jungle.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is spearheading the effort, said the helicopters marked with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) emblems could take off from Villavicencio, in central Colombia, yesterday.

But the time and location of the pickup were still uncertain.

Chavez said on Friday the mission was still waiting for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to disclose the jungle location where they will release former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo, 57; Clara Rojas, 44; and Emmanuel, Rojas' three-year-old son, born to a rebel in captivity.

The women were snatched in 2001 and 2002 respectively. The mission to pick them up is dubbed "Operation Emmanuel."

"We have a little problem, which is that we don't have the exact coordinates of where they are or are going to be," Chavez said earlier in the Venezuelan town of Santo Domingo, where he personally supervised the mission's launch.

"The FARC have not gotten the coordinates to us," he said.

Colombian and Venezuelan government officials were meeting here with the ICRC to finalize details of the operation, said presidential spokesman Cesar Mauricio Velazquez.

The ICRC had ruled out carrying out the mission on Friday, saying it was too dark to fly into the jungle.

"We can leave tomorrow [yesterday], but that depends on several factors including the weather," said ICRC Colombian delegate Barbara Hintermann.

Chavez said on Friday that a FARC patrol escorting the hostages was moving "but the weather is bad and travel is difficult."

"I hope there will be good weather tomorrow [yesterday], that we can fill in some small details that are missing and I hope that tomorrow we can complete the operation," he said.

He said FARC commander Ivan Marquez had reported US-made military surveillance planes flying over the area. "I hope this does not interfere," he said.

"If there were any problem finding the spot, for some military or weather reason, we would be ready to conduct ground operations, but for that we would need permission" from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Chavez said.

The handover could take place place anywhere in a 310,000km2 wilderness in central and eastern Colombia, where there are few roads but numerous landing strips used by drug traffickers.

Colombia's Civil Defense has made available a 100-strong search and rescue team of indigenous Colombians "who know the jungle very well," said Jorge Diaz, civil defense director for Villavicencio.

Chavez has choreographed an elaborate plan, under the auspices of the ICRC, to pick up the three hostages whom FARC vowed on Dec. 18 to release to him.

Security was tight at the airport in Villavicencio, 100km southeast of Bogota, as officials there prepared for a crush of international dignitaries, medics and journalists.

International observers converging on the area include former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner as well as representatives of France, Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Switzerland and the ICRC.

It is the first time in more than five years that the FARC will have unilaterally released so-called "political" hostages.

Rojas was the presidential campaign manager of French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt when the two were abducted by FARC in February 2002. Betancourt is not expected to be released this time.

She is among some 45 hostages,whom the rebels want to exchange for some 500 FARC members held by the Colombian government.
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