A Colombian politician who was freed last month from his guerilla captors has requested to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush. Luis Eladio Perez has traveled to the U.S. in order to gather support for a “humanitarian exchange” between captives and jailed guerillas. According to one source, Perez’ plan would free high-profile hostages like Ingrid Betancourt as well as three U.S. contractors:The new plan involves the release of 39 hostages for some 500 members of FARC, which stands for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The exchange would be made in French territories overseas such as Martinique or French Guiana, according to Argentinian newspaper Clarin…
The deal would involve France removing FARC from its list of terrorist organizations, while Washington would have to free two rebels imprisoned in the US: Ricardo Palmera - alias Simon Trinidad - and Anayibe Rojas, known as Sonia. The two would be granted asylum in France under the proposal.
FARC would in turn release three US contractors - Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Mark Gonsalves - who were kidnapped in February 2003.
After being freed, Perez said that the three kidnapped contractors were in bad health and they had requested prompt help from the U.S. government.
Sources (English)- Monsters & Critics, The Latin Americanist, Associated Press
Sources (Spanish)- RCN
Image- Caracol Radio
2 comments:
Let me see if I get this straight. Exchange 40 people for 500...legitimize FARC...can you say Stockholm Syndrome? You would think that FARC had Bogota surrounded, it's the only way this deal would make sense. FARC may me down and not out but it is stupid to give them basically something for nothing.
All this would do is encourage FARC to kidnap more. Maybe we should send this moron back to the FARC. Something tells me he was handpicked to be released due to his willingness to talk up his captors.
While the FARC has been hit hard militarily over the past few years the group still has some political strength. Admittedly, Eladio Perez' offer may be a little too generous yet it recognizes that defeating the guerillas requires more than just blasting them out of the jungle.
Also, there's some doubts that Eladio Perez has anything close to Stockholm Syndrome. After he was freed, he talked about he his captors treatment of him was akin to torture. According to interviews with the Colombian press, tHis was especially so after he was caught with Betancourt in a failed attempt to escape. It's hard to be even remotely sympathetic after being treated so inhumanely.
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