VENEZUELA: Venezuela's Chavez says FARC and French representatives in Venezuela to discuss hostage release

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said rebels from neighbouring Colombia had entered the country for talks that could start as early as Sunday (November 04) on freeing hostages, including three American men and a French woman. "Various representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have finally arrived in Venezuela, I'm not going to say where because I have to meet with them. They have come to begin to begin talks on the humanitarian accord, which is our task," he said. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has asked Chavez to mediate with the Marxist guerrillas from Latin America's oldest insurgency, the FARC, to break an impasse in negotiations meant to win the release of the group's most high-profile captives. "I should be seeing them," Chavez said at a political rally. "I do not know if it will be tonight (Sunday), tomorrow or the day after." Chavez, who is South America's leading leftist voice, has credibility with the rebels but it is unclear if he can overcome obstacles to the accord such as Uribe's refusal to meet the FARC demand for a demilitarized area, analysts say. "Venezuela is turning into a centre for finding peace and that is our revolution, a revolution for peace," Chavez said. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, want rebel prisoners freed in exchange for hostages held for years in jungle camps, including a French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. contract workers.

ITN Source | November 5, 2007

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