Hostage Release Brings New Hope for a Larger Humanitarian Exchange

In December 2007 the FARC was set to release former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez and former vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas, along with a 3-year-old boy named Emmanuel. The boy is the son of Rojas and a FARC guerrilla. But the FARC failed to free the hostages, they said due to military activity in the area, despite efforts by President Chavez and an international delegation of political figures from South America to facilitate the release. A strange twist in events happened when results of a DNA test published on Friday, January 4, 2007, by the Colombian government proved that Emmanuel was not in the hands of the FARC as stated, but rather had been in an Bogota orphanage for more than two years. Weakening the credibility of the hostage release negotiations, the scandal caused the dismantling of the entire exchange operation.

The following Wednesday, January 9th, President Chavez was contacted by the FARC with the exact location where Ms. Gonzalez and Ms. Rojas would be released. Under heavy international pressure the Colombian government decided to allow Venezuelan helicopters to enter the area and transport the women to Venezuela where they were reunited with their families. This is the most important hostage release in the Colombian conflict since 2001, when the FARC freed some 300 soldiers and police officers and we hope it will lead to a larger humanitarian exchange.
See a slide show of the exchange here. See the actual video of the exchange here.