Word: betancourt
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...Ecuador; and this month another top comandante, Eldaneyis Mosquera, alias Katrina, surrendered to Colombian authorities and called on her comrades to do the same. Over the weekend, Uribe claimed that other FARC honchos have offered to lay down their arms and release captives like former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. What's less clear is whether the FARC unit holding the three Americans is inclined to do the same. Either way, Uribe, who is the Bush Administration's key ally in South America, has announced the creation of a $100 million reward fund for guerrillas who leave the FARC...
...while the State Department helped coordinate Richardson's trip, the effort still stands in sharp contrast to the crusade that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is waging for the release of another FARC hostage, former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who has dual French-Colombian citizenship and has often been held alongside the Americans. Sarkozy has sent a humanitarian mission to Colombia to gain access to the ill and emaciated Betancourt, 46, who was abducted in 2002. She "is in danger of imminent death," Sarkozy warned in a French TV broadcast aired in Colombia. "You who lead the FARC, you have...
...Security and Democracy Foundation in Bogota: "If a U.S. appellate judge cuts Trinidad's sentence to, say, below 20 years, it puts the ball in the FARC's court." Another possibility: the pair's transfer to, and lighter sentences in, prisons in France as part of the possible Betancourt exchange. "We aren't discounting [either] scenario," says a U.S. official familiar with the case...
...taking office in 2002, Uribe has made impressive progress with Colombia's security and economy. But there is scant contact between him and the FARC, which is far from vanquished. "I'm killing myself every day wondering why dialogue is so impossible for all sides in this tragedy," says Betancourt's mother Yolanda Pulecio. At least Betancourt is a cause celebre in France. In their jungle encampments, America's hostages in Colombia are not just out of sight; to all but their families and supporters, they seem to be out of mind too. With reporting by Sibylla Brodzinsky/Bogota and Bruce...
...some hope that the FARC, with Chavez as a mediator, might continue releasing some of its more than 700 hostages, including three U.S. defense contractors held in the Colombian jungle since 2003. That effort, which includes Ecuador and France (the most famous hostage is former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a dual Colombian-French citizen), has likely been brought to a halt by last weekend's events. This Friday, Chavez, Uribe and Correa are set to attend a summit in the Dominican Republic for the Grupo de Rio - a group of Latin American nations formed in the 1980s to help...