Chavez Launches Hostage Handover

By Ian Jamesin Caracas

The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, has began a delicate operation to pluck three hostages from rebel-held areas of the Colombian jungle.

Mr Chavez is calling the mission “Operation Emmanuel”, after the toddler believed to be the son of a hostage, Clara Rojas, and a guerrilla fighter.

By special arrangement with Colombia’s US-allied government, Venezuela has sent two military helicopters to unidentified spots to pick up the former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, Ms Rojas and the boy, who is thought to be three. The helicopters landed in the town of Villavicencio at the foot of Colombia’s stretch of the Andes yesterday afternoon and will fly off to collect the hostages when the rebel captors give them the go-ahead.

For security reasons, Mr Chavez said, the rebels have demanded that Venezuelan pilots not be told where they will fly ahead of time. Also, there may be multiple potential rendezvous points. “With these two helicopters goes great hope,” Mr Chavez said as the helicopters left the military base in Venezuela.

Aboard the helicopters are international observers from France and five Latin American countries, including the former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, Colombia’s leading peace negotiator and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The American film-maker Oliver Stone, who is making a documentary about Latin America, will arrive in Colombia today to observe the mission. He called Mr Chavez a “great man”.

The handover is shrouded in secrecy and shaped by the nature of Colombia’s guerrilla war. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, has been fighting for more than four decades, and its guerrillas are dispersed in remote jungle camps.

Ms Rojas, an aide to the former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, was kidnapped with the French-Colombian politician six years ago. AP

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