[NYTr] Chavez Persists in Colombia Mediation, Captive-Exchange Effort Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:52:14 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [The latest developments in Hugo Chavez's Effort to mediate between the Colombian government and the rebel armies FARC and ELN, and to reach some agreement on a captive change. via VIO. -NYTr] AP via Intl Herald Tribune - Sep 18, 2007 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/19/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Colombia-FARC.php Chavez: FARC insists on demilitarized zone before possible prisoner swap The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela: Colombia's largest rebel group refuses to budge on its demand for a New York City-size demilitarized zone as a precondition for talks on exchanging some of its hostages for guerrilla prisoners, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday. The Colombian government has repeatedly rejected demands by the rebels for troops to clear an 800-square-kilometer (310-square-mile) area in southwestern Colombia for talks aimed at securing the release of 45 high-profile hostages, including three Americans. During a brief televised appearance with peace mediator and Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba, Chavez read segments of a letter from Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, commander Manuel Marulanda and insisted that a meeting with the octogenarian rebel is vital for talks to move forward. Reading the letter from Marulanda, Chavez said: "The clearing out of troops from the municipalities of Florida and Pradera is indispensable so that officials from the government and FARC can agree on terms and procedures that lead to the liberation of the hostages." Chavez has asked Colombian President Alvaro Uribe permission to travel into FARC-dominated territory to meet the Marulanda. But Colombia's U.S.-allied government has dismissed such a meeting as inappropriate. Marulanda has said he is not able to travel to Venezuela at the moment. The rebels are holding several hundred hostages. Among the most prominent are three U.S. defense contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen. Cordoba, who was tapped by Uribe to mediate a prisoner swap, said she would travel to Washington in the coming weeks to meet with Ricardo Palmera and Anayibe Rojas Valderama, two senior FARC members who are currently in U.S. custody after being extradited by Colombia. The FARC has long insisted the two guerrillas, who have been convicted by U.S. courts on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, be part of any swap. U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield has refused to say whether he would recommend the White House pardon Palmera and Rojas Valderama to facilitate a deal. Also Tuesday, Venezuelan state television broadcast a videotape of a visit by Cordoba last week to a jungle camp in Colombia where senior FARC commander Raul Reyes proposed an Oct. 8 meeting with Chavez. *** AFP via Google - Sep 18, 2007 http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jIGjic1dVl1vWktYqJ6IYH5yqgCA Colombia rebels demand demilitarized zone for hostage swap: Chavez Agence France Presse CARACAS ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is acting as a mediator in Colombia's hostage crisis, said Tuesday that leftist rebels insist that the Colombian government create a demilitarized zone for a prisoner swap. Chavez said the two top leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, which wants to swap 45 high-profile hostages for 500 imprisoned rebels, made their demand in two letters sent to him. The rebel hostages include dual nationality French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three US citizens, and a number of Colombian senators, governors, congressmen and mayors. "Mr. President, there is willingness within FARC to facilitate the exchange of prisoners held by FARC," Chavez read. One letter was written by FARC chief Manuel Marulanda and the other by his top deputy, Raul Reyes. "For that to happen, we consider the removal of troops from the (southwestern) towns of Pradera and Florida essential to allow leaders of FARC and the government to agree on the terms and procedures regarding the captives," the letter said, according to Chavez. But the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe reiterated Tuesday its refusal to create a demilitarized zone. "This is not negotiable," Jose Obdulio Gaviria, a top aide of Uribe, told AFP. "We will keep giving the same answer." Chavez said Reyes also wrote that FARC were "preparing the terrain" to hold a meeting between Chavez and Marulanda in Colombia. Chavez had asked Uribe on Saturday to let him meet with Marulanda in Colombia's jungle, but Bogota denied the request. The 17,000-strong Marxist rebels have been fighting the government since the 1960s. *** Bloomberg - Sep 18, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=amaVZkBNygwA&refer=latin_america Venezuela's Chavez May Meet Colombian Rebel Leader Next Month By Matthew Walter Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he may meet with Raul Reyes, a leader of Colombia's biggest guerilla group, in early October to help negotiate a hostage release. Reyes, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, proposed a meeting on Oct. 8 in Venezuela, Chavez said, according to a statement from the Venezuelan government. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has consented to Chavez's involvement in talks with the FARC, as the rebel group is known, to help win the release of about 45 hostages in exchange for 500 jailed guerillas. *** The Miami Herald - Sep 18, 2007 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/venezuela/story/241369.html ChC!vez stands to gain by trying to free hostages By Phil Gunson, Sibylla Brodinsky and Tyler Bridges CARACAS -- Isabel HernC!ndez pondered only briefly the question of whether she favors President Hugo ChC!vez's efforts to free 45 hostages, including three Americans, held by guerrillas in Colombia. ChC!vez ''should worry more about problems in Venezuela,'' said HernC!ndez, a receptionist. ``Food is very expensive, and you can't always find eggs and milk.'' Shrugging off criticism, ChC!vez has undertaken what analysts call an ambitious gambit to free the hostages that is diverting attention from his domestic problems, burnishing his reputation abroad and giving him entry into Colombian politics -- as part of a long-term goal to expand his influence throughout the region. Few analysts expect ChC!vez to get the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC, to release the 45 prominent hostages it holds. At best, he might get the FARC to free a few hostages as a symbolic gesture, which still likely would win him plaudits. ''He has all to gain and nothing to lose,'' said Patrick Esteruelas, a political-risk analyst in New York who follows the Andean countries. ``He's seen some of his domestic popularity and foreign-policy credentials take a hit. . . . ChC!vez has seen that the way to bolster his foreign-policy credentials is to be a mediator in brokering a hostage swap that thus far has been elusive for others.'' Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been under steady public pressure over the past years to negotiate a swap of FARC hostages for jailed rebels. Besides the three U.S. defense contractors seized when their plane crashed in a guerrilla-controlled region in 2003, the hostages include former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen, several other politicians and police and military officials. But Uribe has steadfastly rejected demands by the FARC, Latin America's oldest and largest guerrilla group, for a demilitarized zone where the exchange could be negotiated. MarC-a Teresa Romero, an international-relations professor at Venezuela's Central University, said Uribe didn't have much of a choice once Sen. Piedad CC3rdoba, of Colombia's opposition Liberal Party, proposed having ChC!vez mediate the swap. ''Uribe has been criticized for failing to free the hostages,'' Romero said. ``He's accepted the mediation of the Europeans. How could he turn down ChC!vez?'' AN OPENING Still, Romero added, giving ChC!vez a foothold in Colombian politics carries risks for Uribe: ``It gives ChC!vez the chance to expand his revolution to Colombia.'' The new U.S. ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield, butted heads with ChC!vez when he served as U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. But Brownfield had nothing but praise for his new mission. ''We see as positive the participation of any leader, functionary, official, politicians or person from any country in any effort that could produce the prompt and safe liberation of the three American hostages and the multitude of Colombian hostages,'' he told reporters in BogotC!. PRAISE FROM REBEL In many ways ChC!vez is the ideal mediator, analysts say. The FARC sees ChC!vez as a sort of kindred spirit in his anti-U.S. ''Bolivarian'' ideology. Allegations that rebels have established rear-guard camps across the border in Venezuela have circulated for years. In an interview published in the Mexican daily La Jornada, senior FARC commander RaC:l Reyes praised ChC!vez's ''ability, his shrewdness and the prestige he has gained on the continent'' and predicted he would ``help to resolve the issue of the humanitarian exchange.'' The main sticking point for the swap has been the FARC demand for the safe haven that would host negotiations. Before Uribe was elected, the FARC used a similar demilitarized zone to recruit and train new fighters and hold kidnap victims. A Datexco poll published last month in the BogotC! daily El Tiempo showed that Colombians were split over whether the government should grant the safe haven. Uribe's own father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping attempt in 1986. But the pressures on Uribe have been increasing. Eleven regional lawmakers kidnapped by the FARC more than five years ago were killed in June in a confusing incident. The FARC blamed a government attack, but the government denied any attack and blamed the FARC. Meanwhile, a schoolteacher whose son was kidnapped by the FARC rallied thousands of Colombians on a 600-mile march to demand a humanitarian accord. ChC!vez's efforts already may have paid some dividends for him. Venezuelan officials claimed French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday telephoned him to praise his efforts on behalf of Betancourt and the others. OTHER KIDNAP VICTIMS Still, ChC!vez faces restiveness at home. Officials at the Venezuelan ranchers' federation, Fedenaga, wonder why ChC!vez isn't doing more to free the more than 77 Venezuelans kidnapped and currently in captivity, some of them since 2002 or 2003. More than half are ranchers. This year alone, the federation says, at least 167 people have been kidnapped, including 61 of its members. ''The president should intervene on behalf of these people, too,'' said MarC-a Pinto, Fedenaga's executive president. Miami Herald special correspondents Brodzinsky and Gunson reported from BogotC! and Caracas, respectively. Correspondent Bridges reported from Caracas. * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================