Colombia - Farc - Ingrid Betancourt

Colombia offers to swap rebels for Betancourt

Friday 28 March 2008

Colombia has offered to release hundreds of FARC rebels if the group immediately releases French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt. (Report: O. Fairclough)

Special Report Ingrid Betancourt rescued

Friday 28 March 2008

By Marco Chown Oved / FRANCE 24

It’s the first official offer of its kind, and it could breathe new life into hostage negotiations in Colombia. Late Thursday, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia signed a decree announcing that he would release hundreds of FARC fighters currently in prison if the guerrilla group freed its high-profile hostage, Ingrid Betancourt.

“It is enough that Ingrid Betancourt be immediately freed for us to consider the humanitarian exchange as moving forward and also to begin delivering benefits of suspended sentences to jailed members of the guerrilla group. Our first interest of course is the health of Ingrid Betancourt,” said Luis Carlos Restrepo, peace commissioner for the Colombian government, in a prepared announcement on Friday.

The offer departs from Uribe’s long-held policy of refusing to release any prisoners, and comes as a surprise after negotiations between the Marxist guerrilla group and the Colombian government recently stalled.

A policy turnaround

Uribe constructed his political career around a hard-line position against negotiations with the FARC for a very personal reason – they killed his father, said FRANCE 24’s political analyst Gauthier Rybinski.

“He always thought that the only solution was military intervention,” Rybinski said.

But now the situation has changed, because the guerrilla’s forces – and their influence – have weakened in recent years. The Colombian president is able to make this offer because “he knows that among the guerrillas in prison, there are more and more who no longer want to take up arms. Uribe can consider this offer because if he releases prisoners, there’s only a small chance they’ll rejoin the war,” explained Rybinski.

“Some are even asking for government protection when they are released from prison,” he added.

The future remains uncertain

Fabrice Delloye, Betancourt’s ex-husband, remains sceptical and said that he wanted to know more detail about the offer. “We would like to know what kind of humanitarian agreement the Colombian government is ready to sign with the FARC,” he told FRANCE 24.

“This isn’t the first time the Colombian has made offers,” he added. “We need to know more detail.”

The situation develops in 2008

Betancourt, who holds French and Colombian citizenship, was kidnapped six years ago by the rebel group while she was campaigning for president of Colombia. Her release has become an international cause célèbre, with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela declaring it top priority.

A productive tone was set at the beginning of 2008, after the FARC unilaterally released six hostages. But any optimism that Betancourt’s situation would improve was dashed when the freed hostages reported that Betancourt’s health was failing. This revelation was followed shortly by the Colombian government’s announcement that it had killed FARC’s second-in-command Raúl Reyes in a military raid, casting a cloud over relations between the two parties.