Colombian Marxist rebels agreed to release an army general captured by their comrades over the weekend, a move that may lead to a resumption of peace talks and diffuse a crisis that threatened to extend five decades of war.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) promised to free General Ruben Dario Alzate and four others captured in the past two weeks “as soon as possible” after reaching an agreement on liberation terms with the government and guarantor nations Cuba and Norway.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ office responded immediately to the announcement, pledging to resume talks as soon as the hostages are free.
Photo: EPA
Alzate and two others were seized on Sunday by a FARC patrol as they left a boat in the poor and crime-ridden coastal region of Choco, prompting Santos to halt talks and throwing into doubt the two-year peace process under way in Cuba. Just days earlier, the rebels had kidnapped two soldiers in eastern Arauca department.
“The government will give its total collaboration to guarantee the safe return of these people to their homes, which we hope will be in the shortest time possible,” Santos’s office said in a brief statement. “Once they are all free, the government’s delegation will return to Havana.”
The FARC’s decision to release the captives may counter critics of the peace process who say the rebels are not serious about ending Latin America’s longest-running war, which has killed more than 200,000 people since it began in 1964.
Alzate is the highest-ranking military hostage ever taken by the FARC. A soldier and a civilian lawyer were captured along with him.
The FARC says it has stopped kidnapping for ransom but maintains military personnel are fair targets in the absence of a ceasefire. Alzate was considered a prisoner of war.
Certain undisclosed conditions must be met before the FARC will free the hostages, representatives from Cuba and Norway said in Havana.
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