Colombian rebels released a video showing seven kidnapped police officers and soldiers -- some of whom have spent nearly a decade in captivity -- pleading for the government and rebels to negotiate their freedom.
The video was made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and given to the news channel Al-Jazeera, Colombia's RCN news said. It played clips on Tuesday night.
In the video, soldier Giovanni Dominguez was able to shed more light on the conditions of the nation's most famous hostage, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, abducted five years ago with her campaign manager, Clara Rojas.
"In the camps, I have met with many prisoners of war and some detained politicians like Ingrid Betancourt and Mrs. Clara Rojas and a little boy that goes everywhere with them," Dominguez said.
He was almost certainly referring to three-year-old Emmanuel, a child Rojas is believed to have had with one of her captors.
"When Mrs. Clara gets tired of carrying the child, a guerrilla kindly offers to help her, which [the boy] loves because he likes to play horsey," said Dominguez, who like the others gives an individual message straight to camera.
The video 's release came ahead of a national march scheduled for yesterday that was expected to draw millions of Colombians to the streets and protest kidnapping and demand the liberation of all those kept in illegal captivity.
It was not clear when this latest so-called "proof of life" video was made, although the journalist who received the tape, Hollman Morris, estimated it could be between last October or this January.
Such videos, released about twice a year, are used by the rebels as a form of applying pressure on the government to open negotiations, a move supported by all the families of those kidnapped.
In a separate message on the video, soldier Pablo Emilio Moncayo pleads for Colombia President Alvaro Uribe to begin talks with the guerrillas.
"You have shown such skill in leading the country, and have opened two different negotiations for peace," Moncayo said, referring to talks with the ELN, and the far-right death squads. "Open up now another path in talking with the FARC."
Moncayo was kidnapped more than nine years ago when rebels stormed the army base where he was stationed. This message was the first his family had received from him in four years.
His father is walking across Colombia with a metal chain wrapped around his neck in solidarity with his son's captivity to pressure the guerrillas and the government to agree to free the hostages.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
RSS