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Colombian rebels free four hostages, problems arise
Mon Feb 2, 2009 2:16am EST
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By Patrick Markey
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC rebels freed four hostages in the first of three prisoner releases planned this week, but the operation was complicated by a rebel bombing and charges of military harassment during the handover.
A Brazilian helicopter on Sunday flew Red Cross delegates and a commission led by a leftist senator to ferry three captive police officers and a soldier from the jungle to a city south of Bogota.
The handovers had prompted speculation the weakened rebel group will free more captives to build political leverage for Latin America's oldest-running insurgency. But talks still appear far off as both sides are deadlocked over demands.
Hours after the release, a car bomb exploded outside a police office in Cali, killing one person and wounding at least four in an attack authorities blamed on the FARC.
Soon after the bombing, President Alvaro Uribe suspended the involvement of the commission led by left-wing senator Piedad Cordoba, who has helped broker hostage releases in the past.
The move, which could complicate the remaining releases, followed statements by members of Cordoba's civilian commission that Sunday's release had been delayed by military operations. The government denied the charge, though Uribe acknowledged military aircraft had flown over the area of the releases.
"The government cannot allow the terrorists to keep playing with the pain of the hostages and their families," Uribe said in Bogota. He said only the Red Cross and Brazilian helicopters would be authorized for the remaining releases.
A second flight on Monday planned to pick up Alan Jara, a politician held hostage for more than seven years, and a third operation planned to rescue another lawmaker from the jungle near the remote Pacific coast.
The army had said earlier it would suspend actions in the area to guarantee safety for the handover.
BATTERED BUT SURVIVING
Once a powerful army of 17,000 that held large swaths of Colombia, the FARC has been driven back into remote mountains and jungles after Uribe sent troops out to retake control and crush their 4-decade-old insurgency.
The FARC was battered last year by the deaths of three commanders, desertions and the rescue in July of a group of high-profile captives it hoped to use as bargaining chips, including three Americans and a French-Colombian lawmaker.
The rebels have demanded Uribe demilitarize an area roughly the size of New York City as a safe haven to guarantee talks with the government over swapping around 20 political hostages as a first step toward peace negotiations.
While violence in the cities has ebbed, the FARC remain a force in rural areas where state presence is weak and they get massive funding from Colombia's huge cocaine trade.
Authorities believe a FARC extortion racket was to be blame for a bomb that killed two people in the capital this month. Continued...
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