Word: colombian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Hostages held by Colombian rebels set free...
Worse, it left the Colombian peace process looking as tangled as the jungle where waiting Venezuelan helicopters were supposed to retrieve the hostages. Nearby in Villavicencio, Colombia, south of Bogota, observers from France, Switzerland and six Latin American countries, as well as celebrity onlookers like American film director Oliver Stone, packed their bags and left shaking their heads. As he departed, Stone, who has a penchant for things guerrilla, said, "Shame on Colombia," referring to what was widely seen as meddling by President Uribe that may have helped sink the release operation...
There's enough blame to go around. In principle, the FARC agreed earlier this month to release former Colombian Congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez and politician Clara Rojas, who were kidnapped six years ago. The third hostage was Rojas' 3-year-old son, Emmanuel, whose father is said to be one of the FARC captors. They were to be freed days before New Year's Eve. But when nothing happened last weekend, and when the FARC kept failing to provide Venezuelan officials with geographical coordinates for the release site, doubts began to rise...
Standing up to the FARC has made the conservative Uribe a widely popular President, with both Colombians and the Bush Administration, which counts Uribe as its closest Latin American ally. But Uribe didn't exactly help matters late Monday when, as observers still held out hope that the FARC might come through, he seemed to break his own promise to stay clear of the process and arrived in Villavicencio with stunning news. Colombian government intelligence, he said, suggests that 3-year-old Emmanuel was released two years ago to a foster family. Whether that's true or not, Uribe left...
February, in fact, marks the fifth anniversary of the FARC's capture of three U.S. defense contractors - and the sixth for the rebels' best-known captive, liberal Colombian Senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, whose dual Colombia-French citizenship has made her a cause celebre in Europe. Chavez said he still believes the FARC will release Gonzalez and Rojas, who was Betancourt's running mate. But if they don't, 2008 will begin as yet one more year of shame for Colombia...