Raul Reyes spoke publicly for the first time since Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week offered his country as neutral ground to pursue an exchange of hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for rebels held by Colombia's government.Nobody really expected the FARC to release their hostages, but it was worth a shot.
In the interviewed published by Clarin, South America's largest-circulation daily, Reyes thanked Chavez for "this gesture" and called it a "new impulse" in efforts to resolve the issue.
"But we continue to maintain that any exchange, being a problem deriving from an internal conflict, must be resolved within Colombia," he told a Clarin correspondent at an unspecified "southern Colombian jungle" location. "We are not going to hand over prisoners in Venezuela."
The Clarin interview with Raul Reyes appears here and here.
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Meanwhile the agreement negotiated on Cuban soil between the ELN (2nd biggest rebel group) and the Colombian Government has seen marked progress. They are at the half-way point to a full cease-fire deal.
It is likely Uribe is trying to get one monkey off its back and also attempt to split the FARC movement. Chavez will continue to be useful in this issue, though the use of Venezuelan soil as a "safe-haven" to trade prisoners was sure to cause complaints from both sides.
Something might be in the works for Chavez to cancel a tour to Africa... where he'd be treated like a King - as he was in Haiti.
CARACAS (AFP) - President Hugo Chavez will mediate in Colombia's hostage crisis during a two-day visit to Colombia later this week, Venezuela's foreign ministry said yesterday.
Chavez canceled a five-nation tour of Africa this week to take part in the negotiations to try to bring about a prisoner-for- hostage swap between the government of President Alvaro Uribe and Colombia's strongest and oldest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
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While in Colombia, Chavez is expected to meet with Uribe, his Foreign Relations Minister Fernando Araujo and Colombia's opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba, but the agenda for his two-day visit "is being decided," a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.
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