[NYTr] US grudgingly acknowledges Chavez role on hostages Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:55:54 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit See also below: U.S. grudgingly acknowledges Chavez role on hostages (Reuters) The Guardian - Jan 11, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/colombia/story/0,,2238975,00.html ChC!vez wins freedom for Colombian hostages B7 Rebels release pair in deal with Venezuelan president B7 Mother will meet son born in jungle captivity by Rory Carroll in Caracas and Sibylla Brodzinsky in BogotC! Venezuelan Red Cross helicopters plucked two high-profile Colombian hostages from the jungle yesterday, ending their six-year kidnap ordeal and raising hopes for other hostages. A day of drama ended in breakthrough after Clara Rojas, a former Colombian vice-presidential candidate, and Consuelo GonzC!lez, a former member of the country's congress, were retrieved from a remote region in eastern Colombia, in a deal brokered by Venezuela's president, Hugo ChC!vez. The freed captives were being flown to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, last night. An earlier deal to release them in December broke down. "I told them 'Welcome to life, welcome to life'," ChC!vez told journalists shortly after speaking to the former hostages by telephone. They were emotional and in good health, he said. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc, agreed to the handover after months of mediation by ChC!vez, a process which verged on fiasco and triggered furious rows between Venezuela's leader and Colombia's government. On Wednesday the rebels notified ChC!vez, a fellow leftwinger whom they respect, that they would release the women in the south-eastern state of Guaviare bordering Venezuela. Colombia's armed forces agreed to temporarily suspend operations as the Red Cross helicopters flew to the rendezvous yesterday. "It still seems like I'm kind of dreaming," said Rojas's elderly mother, Clara GonzC!lez de Rojas. "This is the biggest miracle my God could have ever given me. I'll be truly happy when I go with my daughter to retrieve my little grandson." Rojas, 44, was running mate to the presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt when the two were kidnapped in February 2002. She gave birth to a baby boy named Emmanuel in 2004, reportedly after a liaison with one of her captors. Mother and son, as well as Consuelo GonzC!lez, 57, who was abducted in September 2001, were due to be freed in late December. The deal collapsed when it emerged that the rebels did not have the boy. He had somehow been passed into the government's foster care system while he was still an infant and had been living in the capital, BogotC!. That revelation shook the rebels' credibility and embarrassed ChC!vez's elaborate reception committee, which included the film director Oliver Stone. Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, a conservative and unbending foe of the rebels, said it proved that Farc could not be trusted. Yesterday's releases, conducted under the Red Cross aegis and without a media circus, should mend some fences between the two governments, said Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank. "Uribe should get some credit for having successfully embarrassed Farc over the Emmanuele incident, and also for accommodating ChC!vez's efforts to secure the release. Chavez will save face and regain some standing as a leader committed to regional peace." For the relatives of the two freed hostages waiting in a Caracas hotel the political wrangling was a sideshow to their joy and relief. All were expected to fly home to BogotC! later this week, where Rojas would be reunited with her son. For the families of the other 750 hostages it was a bittersweet day, which intensified their longing. Many are being held for financial ransom, while 46 high-profile captives, including Betancourt and three US defence contractors, are being kept as political bargaining chips. "This has to be the beginning of an effort that culminates with the release of all the "exchangeable" hostages and all the kidnap victims held for ransom," said a Colombian senator, Piedad Cordoba, who acted as a facilitator for ChC!vez. Yesterday's breakthrough will renew pressure on Colombia's government to make concessions to secure other releases, said RomC!n Ortiz, a security analyst in BogotC!. The fact that the rebels dropped their precondition for a demilitarised zone as a precursor to negotiations - a previous sticking point - put the ball in their court, he said. "They have to decide what they will demand now." *** Reuters - Jan 10, 2008 http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSN1010923420080110 U.S. grudgingly acknowledges Chavez role on hostages WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States grudgingly acknowledged Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's role in freeing two women hostages in Colombia on Thursday but made clear it was not about to ask his help to free three Americans there. U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey warmly welcomed the release of the two women held for years in Colombia's jungles by Marxist rebels but avoided praising the leftist Chavez, an outspoken critic of the United States who has described U.S. President George W. Bush as the devil. "We welcome the release of these two hostages," Casey told reporters of former Colombian vice-presidential candidate Clara Rojas and ex-congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, who were being flown to freedom on helicopters Chavez sent to pick them up. "We are also appreciative of the leadership of (Colombian) President (Alvaro) Uribe, in terms of trying to secure the release of these hostages, and we welcome the good offices of any individuals who can help secure that, in cooperation with the Colombian government," he said. He also called on the FARC, a peasant army created in the 1960s and now largely funded by Colombia's cocaine trade, to release all its hostages, who include former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was kidnapped in 2002, and three U.S. anti-drug contractors captured in 2003. Casey praised the efforts of Uribe in securing the release of the two women and said the United States would continue to work with his government on freeing the others. He largely avoided mentioning Chavez. "I think that anybody, including President Chavez ... who has a role to play that is positive and that supports President Uribe and the Colombian government's efforts is to be welcomed," Casey said. Asked if Washington was willing to work with Chavez to try to release the U.S. hostages, Casey replied: "Well, we continue to work with the government of Colombia. The government of Colombia and President Uribe are the ones who are ultimately responsible for managing whatever process is involved here." He added that the United States would do "anything and everything" it could to secure the release of its hostages but would not directly address whether this might include talking to Chavez. (Writing by Arshad Mohammed, editing by Cynthia Osterman) B) Reuters 2007. 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