By DPA
Caracas : Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continued his efforts to free hostages held by Colombian rebel guerrillas, despite a move by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to remove him from his role as mediator.
Chavez said Thursday evening that he had again requested confirmation from Manuel Marulanda, leader of Colombia’s largest rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), that former presidential candidate Ingrid Bentancourt and 50 other hostages were still alive.
“We will certainly continue,” he said. “The process has begun and there are things one cannot just break off.”
Conservative Uribe withdrew the leftist-nationalist Chavez’s authority as a mediator after Chavez Wednesday spoke over phone with the head of the Colombian military, General Mario Montoya, breaking an agreement about the negotiations, the presidential palace said in a statement Wednesday.
The decision came 10 days after Uribe had ordered Chavez at the Iberian American Summit in Santiago not to have direct talks with high-ranking Colombian military officers.
The palace statement dashed the hopes of relatives of about 50 kidnapped politicians, police officers and soldiers for a prisoner exchange.
Marulanda assured Chavez that he would deliver signs of life for the hostages, but it could take time to deliver them because of the ongoing conflict in Colombia, Chavez said.