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Hostages' families in emotional vigil awaiting release

Chavez promised the mother of Clara Rojas she would have her daughter and grandson by Christmas. I'm wondering now if he meant Xmas of 2007 or 2008! Carajo! It's already the evening of December 23.Tomorow is Noche Buena. What's the delay already?! Now a pro Chavez newspaper is suggesting that the release may not occur until early January. No joda!

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwBpQsRGcUP9IjepThK4wvjrnufQ

BOGOTA (AFP) — Colombia Sunday said there were no impediments to the release of three hostages leftist FARC rebels have promised to hand over to Venezuela, as families of abductees sent anguished Christmas messages to their loved ones.

"There isn't any military operation aimed at preventing the hostages from being freed," Peace Commissioner Carlos Restrepo said Sunday, after an opposition lawmaker said ongoing military operations against the rebels could delay the release.

Venezuelan authorities kept strict silence on the matter, although President Hugo Chavez arrived from Cuba to finalize arrangements for the handover.

"I have already come up with a plan to receive them," Chavez told reporters in Havana Saturday at the close of a four-day visit, before leaving for Caracas.

While it was unclear when and where the release would take place, a source close to the Venezuelan government told AFP the hostages would likely be turned over to a special envoy of President Chavez somewhere along the Colombia-Venezuela border.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on Tuesday said they would free Clara Rojas, her three- or four-year-old son Emmanuel -- born in captivity to Rojas and a rebel father -- and lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo.

Rojas was a political aide to Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician kidnapped in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency, whose plight has gripped Europeans and captured the interest of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

A video seized from FARC rebels earlier this month showing that Betancourt and another 15 hostages were still alive, sparked renewed interest in stalled negotiations between the rebels and the government of President Alvaro Uribe for a prisoner swap -- 46 prominent rebel hostages for some 500 FARC rebels in government jails.

As prisoner-swap talks struggled to get off the ground, FARC rebels suddenly announced that three hostages would be released to Chavez, who recently was fired by Uribe after three months as mediator between the two sides.

On Sunday the Venezuelan newspaper Vea, which is close to the government, said the hostage handover "is difficult" and suggested that their release might not come until early January.

Meanwhile on Sunday Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered Uribe the use of Brazilian territory for negotiations for a prisoner swap with FARC.

Families of dozens of hostages held by FARC held an emotional vigil early Sunday as anxieties grew over the expected release of Gonzalez, Rojas and her son.

With reports that the release could be put off until the New Year, hundreds of relatives of other hostages joined the overnight vigil, which was broadcast on Radio Caracol.

Rojas's family told El Tiempo newspaper Sunday that there were toys around a Christmas tree at their home waiting for the little boy's arrival.

"My sister will be shocked when she sees how her mother has aged two decades in just five years and 10 months," Clara Rojas's brother Ivan told the newspaper.

"Mama is afraid she will die before seeing her daughter again. I don't think that she can wait another Christmas," he said of their mother, who is 77.

The family of Betancourt sent the kidnapped politician words of encouragement via the local radio station.

"Mom, it is hard, so hard to spend Christmas without you," Melanie Delloye, Betancourt's daughter, said from Paris.

But the daughter said "we must remain strong" and asked that her mother look after herself for the sake of her family.

"I would give my life to be at your side," Yolanda Pulecio, Betancourt's mother, said in the message.

"Look after yourself, my love, eat well, take care, and may you come out soon," she told her daughter, who was born on Christmas Day 1961.

On the Venezuelan border with Colombia, meanwhile, there was no military activity that might suggest an imminent hostage handover from Colombia, an AFP reporter in the area said.

Even in Barinas state -- whose governor is Hugo Chavez's father and where it has been rumored the handover might take place -- there was no unusual activity, the reporter added.

However, a military source told AFP that despite the Christmas holiday season, most military officers in the border area remained uncharacteristically at their posts.

By catherine b on Dec 23, 2007, 17:09 in Politics & the war.

britabroad says on Dec 24, 2007, 09:45:

Chaves will milk this for as long as possible. However, he´d be foolish not to keep to his original Xmas deadline. The fact that he´s going to ´release´her speaks volumes. Is she under arrest then? Could she not just thank him and go to the Colombian Consulate in Caracas?
The man´s no better than FARC.

Leave the big stick at home...carry a cannon!

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catherine b says on Dec 24, 2007, 14:53:

Well, it's official. No "promised" Christmas gift for Mrs. Rojas. Sad.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jfuNA-_nVnG2PbUe2tSvLORkd7nQ

No Colombian hostage release before Christmas: intermediary
1 hour ago

BOGOTA (AFP) — Three hostages whose release was promised by Colombia's FARC rebels will not be freed before Christmas, Colombian intermediary Piedad Cordoba said Monday.

"They will not be freed before Christmas. They have not appeared and for the moment there is nothing," Cordoba, a senator, told AFP by telephone from Medellin.

But she said that the release of the three is "certain and will happen."

Last Tuesday the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said they would free Clara Rojas; her young son Emmanuel, who was born in captivity to Rojas and a rebel father; and lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo.

Rojas has been held by the leftist rebels since February 2002, when she was captured together with French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, and Perdomo since September 2001.

According to a FARC communique, the three are to be released to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or someone he designates.

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Rikito says on Dec 24, 2007, 18:31:

...and I have a coffee farm in Antartica I would like to sell you. I have said this many times and each time I pray that I am wrong, but in my past experience with the U.S./ NSA and hostage negotiation, it will never happen. Never! Please let me be wrong this time.

People like Chavez and Cordoba will milk this situation like a fat cow for their own visability and self serving purposes. In the end, when it goes bad, Uribe will be blamed for all that is wrong.

It is not life that matters, but the journey.

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billyb says on Dec 24, 2007, 19:44:

And you know the idiots out there will blame Uribe, when this has all along been a publicity ploy arranged between the FARC, their patron Chavez and the traitor skank Cordova. If they want to release those hostages, just fokin release them and quit all this pantalla shit.

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