Pop star Shakira was to lead nationwide demonstrations in her native Colombia yesterday demanding the liberation of hundreds of hostages held by rebels in the jungle for years.
Around 80 solidarity rallies are also to take place in other cities around Latin America and the rest of the world, including one in Paris that will include recently freed Franco-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt.
“On July 20, I want to shout out, with you, for the independence and liberty of those who are still hostage of the FARC in Colombia,” Betancourt told the French parliament early this month.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) continues to detain an estimated 700 hostages. Up to 2,000 more are believed to be held by the National Liberation Army, another leftist rebel group. Yesterday’s rallies were to call for their immediate release, and those of prisoners held by other rebel groups.
Around 5 million people were expected to take part in the Colombian demonstrations to be held in some 1,000 towns and cities across the country.
The marches coincide with Colombia’s independence day celebrations, which were to be attended by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his guests, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Peruvian President Alan Garcia, in the southern town of Leticia.
Shakira, Colombia’s global pop icon, was to sing Colombia’s national anthem at the start of that commemoration before launching into a concert in support of the hostage liberation demonstration.
Juanes, another high-profile Colombian singer, and other musicians were also scheduled to lend their voices to the liberation initiative.
In the capital Bogota, more than 50,000 people dressed in white were expected to fill the central city square.
Some of the 14 other hostages who were freed with Betancourt — reportedly through a ruse operation by Colombia’s military — will be present there and in other cities.
Three US defense contractors who were liberated at the same time are back in the US and will not be participating, however. It will be the third national demonstration of its type in Colombia. The last was on Feb. 4.
There is concern about possible terrorist acts. On Friday, police arrested in the capital two suspected FARC rebels, seizing from them about 30kg of explosives. The two allegedly planned to use them during the march.
Olga Lucia Gomez, head of the Free Country Foundation working to free the hostages, said the rallies “are to demand not only the liberation of the rebels’ hostages, but also all those being held against their will by whoever they may be.”
Julio Roberto Gomez, president of a workers’ union, told a media conference it was also an opportunity to shine the spotlight on the hundreds of hostages — many of them poor rural residents — who were not famous enough to generate individual public campaigns.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was