As a new administration takes over in Bogotá, some groups are hoping for change in the human rights record of Colombia - and that the U.S. will use its clout in the country to ensure that change occurs.
Hopes that a humanitarian prisoner-for-hostage swap may be negotiated in Colombia before August added to the emotion over the release of Sergeant Pablo Emilio Moncayo by the FARC guerrillas Tuesday and his reunion with his family after more than 12 years in captivity in the jungle.
After Colombia’s FARC rebels released 23-year-old soldier Josué Daniel Calvo, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he is not opposed to a humanitarian swap of imprisoned insurgents for hostages, as long as the guerrillas do not return to the fighting.
"You look as good as ever," was the radio message that Olga Valderrama sent over the airwaves to her son, army corporal Antonio Sanmiguel, who is being held captive somewhere in the jungles of Colombia by the FARC guerrillas.
"Why did they kill them? Out of physical cowardice. It's what we call murder. Sheer physical cowardice. It's what we call a war crime," said former lawmaker Sigifredo López, just freed by the FARC, about the massacre of his 11 colleagues on Jun. 18, 2007, when they were hostages of the Colombian guerrillas.
"At one point I thought we weren't going to find him," said Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba about Alan Jara, the latest hostage to be freed as a goodwill gesture by insurgents after more than seven-and-a-half years as their captive in the jungle.
Alan Jara, the former governor of the central province of Meta, was released by Colombian guerrillas on Tuesday, instead of Monday as originally scheduled. Former regional lawmaker for the western province of Valle del Cauca, Sigifredo López, was scheduled to have been freed on Wednesday, but his handover has now been postponed until Thursday.
"Operation Mistrust" could be the name of the efforts surrounding the planned unilateral release of six hostages by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has run aground a month after it was announced.
Nearly three weeks after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced that they would release six hostages, the government of right-wing President Álvaro Uribe has agreed to provide security guarantees for the operation, which is expected to take place this month.
Wherever there are minorities or marginalised groups in Colombia, or the rights of women are violated, you will find Senator Piedad Córdoba.
At 11:40 AM on Nov. 6, 1985 there were more than 300 people in the Palace of Justice, which lines one side of Bolívar square in the Colombian capital, when 35 guerrillas belonging to the 19 de Abril Movement (M-19) seized the building.
Dialogue - or, more accurately, the lack thereof - was the common denominator in two high-profile events Sunday in the western Colombian city of Cali, demonstrating to what extent this vehicle of mutual understanding is missing in this civil war-torn South American country.
"It is a serious matter that members of the armed forces clandestinely leaked news without coordination with their superiors," says a presidential communiqué issued in Colombia after a local TV station broadcast a video on the operation in which Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by the FARC guerrillas were rescued last month.
"Occupation: Guerrilla. Address: Colombian mountains. Distinguishing marks: Combat scars." That is how Gerardo Aguilar, alias "César" and Alexander Farfán, "Enrique Gafas," answered questions on forms for their extradition to the United States.
A source close to the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) told IPS that the Jul. 2 rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages by the Colombian military "intercepted their liberation, planned for this weekend (Jul. 5-6) or the next," by the FARC rebels.
Among the many questions raised by Operation Check, which ended with the Jul. 2 release of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) hostages Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. contractors and 11 members of the Colombian army and police, is the role played by the United States, France and Switzerland.
General Mario Montoya Uribe, the national commander of the Colombian army, whom Ingrid Betancourt thanked on Wednesday for rescuing her from captivity, has a controversial service record.
"It is painful to die without seeing my son free," said 62-year-old Pedro Manuel Pérez eight days before he died of leukaemia. His funeral in the northern Colombian city of Riohacha put an end to his 10-year wait for the release of his hostage son by the FARC guerrillas.
Three personal envoys of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who were in Ecuador since October 2007, were phoned Saturday Mar. 1 by Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo, who warned them not to go to a meeting with guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes because they would be in danger.
European envoys met over the weekend with members of the FARC rebel group’s central leadership to discuss how to move ahead in the efforts to negotiate a humanitarian exchange aimed at securing the release of Ingrid Betancourt and the rest of the hostages held in the jungle by the guerrillas.
Wednesday marked the start of a new chapter in the life of Ángela Rodríguez. Her husband, Luis Eladio Pérez, who was taken hostage in June 2001 by Colombia’s FARC guerrillas, returned home after being held captive in the jungle for nearly seven years.