Bogota - Luis Eladio Perez, a former Colombian senator and
one-time hostage of the leftist rebel group FARC, is seeking a
meeting with US President George W Bush to get his backing for the
latest effort to swap hostages for rebels in Colombian prisons.
Perez has already discussed his new exchange plan with Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe, and also met with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy in Paris. The deal would include the release of former
Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the highest
profile FARC hostage, who has dual French-Colombian citizenship.
The former senator's wife, Angela de Perez, said Sunday that the
meeting with Bush - being sought through diplomatic channels - was
needed because the United States had an important role to play in the
possible execution of any exchange.
The new plan involves the release of 39 hostages for some 500
members of FARC, which stands for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia. The exchange would be made in French territories overseas
such as Martinique or French Guiana, according to Argentinian
newspaper Clarin.
Colombia and FARC have agreed to an exchange in principle, but
disagreements over how and where to make the swap have doomed the
plan a number of times in the past year.
The deal would involve France removing FARC from its list of
terrorist organizations, while Washington would have to free two
rebels imprisoned in the US: Ricardo Palmera - alias Simon Trinidad -
and Anayibe Rojas, known as Sonia. The two would be granted asylum in
France under the proposal.
FARC would in turn release three US contractors - Keith Stansell,
Thomas Howes and Mark Gonsalves - who were kidnapped in February
2003.
It is estimated that FARC holds at least 700 hostages.
Former legislator Consuelo Gonzales - herself a one-time captive
released in January - said Sunday that she was hopeful Perez's plan
would be successful.
'It would be the best news of the year, of the century, because it
would permit the freeing of 39 people who live ... in the most
terrible humanitarian situation,' Gonzalez told radio station
Caracol.
Perez was taken captive in 2001 and released in February along
with three other legislators. He is also likely to travel to
Venezuela to present his plan to President Hugo Chavez, who has had a
mediating role in the conflict in the past.
But Jose Obdulio Gaviria, a top advisor to Uribe, said the plan
has some serious flaws that doomed it from the beginning, in
particular that of removing FARC from the list of terrorist groups.
Gaviria painted the decades-long battle with the leftist rebel
group FARC as one of 'civilization against barbarism.'
Camilo Gomez, a peace envoy under former president Andres
Pastrana, said their remained 'holes' in the plan, and warned against
promoting direct contacts between France and FARC that would not take
into account the Colombian government's position.
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