| Page 2 of 2 < |
Colombia's Leader Offers Neutral Area For Hostage Talks
Colombian President ¿lvaro Uribe promised in a speech in Bogota, "My countrymen, we have done and will do all we can to liberate our hostages."
(By William Fernando Martinez -- Associated Press)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
The president, though, came under sharp criticism after he ended Ch¿vez's role as mediator in talks designed to establish an exchange of prisoners between the FARC and Uribe's government. Days after Uribe's decision, which was issued Nov. 21 with little explanation, Ch¿vez reacted with fury, calling Uribe a "liar" and freezing relations with Colombia.
Nicol¿s Maduro, Venezuela's foreign minister, later said during a talk show on state television that Ch¿vez had been advancing in talks with the rebels but that Uribe had ended the effort because his government did not really want a peaceful solution. "In December we were going to have the first accord and have the first hostages freed," he said last week. "When they saw it was irreversible and was advancing, they went back on it, because they don't believe in peace."
The release of Betancourt's letter, along with videos of her and several other hostages, including the three Americans who were captured in 2003, has helped generate more interest in the hostages in foreign capitals. In recent days, President Bush has spoken by telephone with Uribe about the captives. And Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made an unusual appeal to Manuel Marulanda, the FARC commander.
"I do not share your ideas, and I condemn your methods," Sarkozy said in a televised message. But he said the FARC "must save a woman in danger of death.
"You can show the world that the FARC understands humanitarian imperatives," Sarkozy said.
The FARC responded testily to Sarkozy's plea. The French, nevertheless, continued to press. On Friday, David Martinon, Sarkozy's spokesman, said French agents have been in contact with the FARC about Betancourt, who turns 46 on Dec. 25.
In her 12-page letter, Betancourt sounded resigned and on the verge of giving up, saying that her hair is falling out in clumps and that she cannot eat. She also wrote in tender terms about her children, Lorenzo Delloye, 19, who lives in Paris, and Melanie Delloye, 22, who is studying in New York.
In a radio address Friday from Paris, Lorenzo Delloye urged his mother not to give up. He spoke on Radio France Internationale, one of the stations that Betancourt had said in her letter she could hear in the jungle.
"I want you to live," he told her. "I want you to eat and have the will to live."
