By IANS,
Bogota : A former Colombian senator who has spent nearly seven years in the captivity of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has expressed his hope that the leftist guerrilla group will soon release all its hostages, EFE news agency reported Wednesday.
Luis Eladio Perez, who was freed in February by the FARC, told reporters Tuesday prior to a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that he was expecting an announcement soon from the rebel group about the release of other captives.
He said an operation to hand over more hostages was under way and it would soon become clear where and how the captives would be delivered.
Perez, like the other five hostages released by the FARC earlier this year, was turned over to representatives of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But the former senator said that the next phase of handover of hostages could involve Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa.
It is also possible, Perez said, that the FARC might directly deliver hostages to representatives of Uribe.
“The process is under way and very soon the site, the conditions, the coordinates and the people to whom they (the captives) will be delivered will be known, whether to President Chavez, to Correa, to Lula or to Uribe,” Perez said outside Casa de Nariño, the presidential palace of Colombia.
Since his release, the erstwhile lawmaker has travelled to Venezuela, France and the US in pursuit of an agreement securing the freedom of 40 high-profile prisoners the FARC has long sought to exchange for hundreds of jailed rebels.
Though the FARC has said repeatedly that it would not free any more captives without getting something in return from Uribe, Perez said the rebels would venture another unilateral release in hope of persuading the US and European Union to drop their designation of the Colombian insurgents as a terrorist group.
Perez said the hostages to be freed include former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a one-time provincial governor and two former lawmakers.
Betancourt, a dual Colombian-French citizen, is the most prominent of the FARC’s hostages.
On Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged the FARC to abandon its 44-year-old armed struggle against a succession of Colombian governments.