Colombian government torpedoed Venezuelan-mediated hostage return, say rebels

Caracas, January 2, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) temporarily suspended on Monday the operation lead by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for the liberation of three hostages. According to the FARC, intensified Colombian military operations made it impossible to safely release the captives.

The three hostages to be released were the former Colombian vice-presidential candidate Clara Rojas, her son, Emmanuel, who was born in captivity, and former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez, captured by the FARC in 2001.

As part of the mission, dubbed "Operation Emmanuel," the Red Cross and a team of international observers, including former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, flew to the Colombian town of Villavicencio to receive the coordinates of an undisclosed location where the hostages would then be handed over. They waited for five days before the operation was suspended.

In statement to the press in Villavicencio on Monday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, denied there was an increased military presence in the region and accused the FARC of "lying" and not wanting to hand over the hostages because they do not have the child, Emmanuel.

Uribe, along with the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo and Colombian Minister of Defense presented what they described as a "hypothesis" based on information received four days earlier; suggesting that an abandoned, maltreated and malnourished child named Juan David Gómez Tapiero, 3 1⁄2 years old, placed in the care of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare in 2005, could possibly be Emmanuel.

Uribe has called for DNA tests of Rojas' family, and Juan David Gómez Tapiero, to verify the claim.

However, during a press conference at Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas on Monday, President Chavez responded, saying Colombian Military operatives deployed in the region impeded the operation and that Uribe went to Villavicencio in order to "dynamite" the process of liberating the hostages.

"He went to launch a bomb at the humanitarian process and should assume his responsibility before the world as the president of Colombia, because I don't have the slightest doubt that it is his government and his actions that are trying to abort the proceedings," Chavez asserted.

"Why did Uribe wait four days to launch his hypothesis over the whereabouts of Emmanuel and to present this information just when the process of handing over the hostages was about to occur?" he asked.

"I hope his hypothesis is certain, but I have reasons to doubt Uribe, many reasons to doubt the High Commissioner for Peace and many more reasons to doubt the Minister of Defense," he said.

However, if the version that Uribe has presented is true, it will be the FARC that has some explaining to do, Chavez added.

With the consent of Clara González de Rojas and Iván Rojas, mother and brother of Clara Rojas, who are in Caracas, Chavez authorised a team of Colombian genetic experts to travel to Venezuela to carry out DNA testing to verify the identity of the child.

However, political analysts have questioned the validity of Uribe's hypothesis. Professor Vladimir Acosta described it as a "soap opera" and Colombian journalist Jorge Enrique Botero, who first alerted the world to the existence of Emmanuel, told Venezuelan state TV that Uribe's theory "does not add up to me."

Referring to a number letters by the hostages, to be delivered to President Chavez as "proof of life," seized by Colombian authorities in Bogota on November 30, Botero said, "We should recall the recent testimony of Army officials held by the FARC. They say they have been with the child on many occasions, and that he is like a son to all of them there."

Uribe's hypothesis "appeared at a very strange moment," Botero added. "Speculation at a moment like this, and made in the form that it was done, with the President of the Republic, the Minister of Defense on one side, the Commissioner for Peace behind him...to me it appears as an irresponsible act to give a blow to the process of liberation."

Additionally, in contrast to Uribe's claims that military activities in the region had not increased, the Colombian daily El Clarin reported that the team of international facilitators who traveled to Villavicencio to oversee the handover, were left with the impression that the pursuit of the FARC by the Colombian Armed Forces "did not stop for one moment."

According to El Clarin, military helicopters also flew over the zone where the hostages were to be handed over and the FARC responded, launching a missile which narrowly missed one of the helicopters. On Tuesday the Colombian military also announced that six FARC guerillas had been killed in three separate clashes.

El Clarin also claimed today that Uribe ordered espionage activities against the international delegation waiting in Villavicencio by placing microphones under their beds and having them constantly under military supervision; they were also separated physically in different locations in order to "break the cohesion of the delegation" the report continued.

On Sunday evening Uribe communicated through Peace Commissioner Restrepo that he could no longer guarantee the security of former president Kirchner or the Brazilian representative Marco Aurelio García, causing them to leave.

Kirchner said that both the FARC and the Colombian government were to blame for the failure of the humanitarian mission.
Despite the failure of the mission, President Chavez assured that "Operation Emmanuel" will continue and that other possibilities to facilitate the liberation of the hostages would be explored, such as a clandestine operation.

Source: VenezuelAnalysis