Bogota - Wilson Bueno Largo, a young former member of
Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels, left the country late Tuesday bound
for exile in France.
Largo, also known as Isaza, gained hero status for freeing a
kidnapped Colombian lawmaker, Oscar Tulio Lizcano, 62, whom he
dragged to freedom in October, earning a 400,000-dollar reward.
The 28-year-old was accompanied to Paris by another former FARC
hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, and his girlfriend, who deserted from the
rebels three months earlier.
Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, who was
freed by the military in July after eight years as a FARC hostage,
proposed the exile to Largo, as a message to other rebels still
holding hostages.
In a message to his former comrades of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC), Largo said the government had kept its
promise not only to spare everyone who dropped their weapons, but
also to help them.
Colombia prosecutors previously dropped all charges against Bueno
concerning Lizcanco's abduction eight years ago.
France offered asylum to former FARC rebels if they swore off
armed combat and did not face charges in their home country.
Conservative Colombia President Alvaro Uribe in the past expressed
hopes that this offer could encourage further FARC members to abscond
together with the hostages they are guarding.
Betancourt ended a one-week tour of Latin America, in which she
tried to gather support for the remaining 3,000 kidnap victims in
Colombia. FARC is believed to still hold about 700 hostages.
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