The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) said on Monday that intense military operations in the country has made the handover of the three hostages difficult.
Lack of security has impeded the hostage release at an undetermined site in the Colombian jungle, the FARC said in a statement read to a Venezuelan TV channel by its president Hugo Chavez.
Chavez said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's "gesture" to go to Villavicencio city in central Colombia "may open another scenery to save the situation."
Venezuelan helicopters carrying Red Cross symbols have arrived at the city on Friday, some 75 km south of Bogota, waiting for notification from the rebels on the exact site of the handover in the vast Colombian jungle.
The Venezuela-led mission has asked Uribe to suspend military actions to secure the release of the hostages.
Colombia authorized on Wednesday a plan proposed by Chavez to send helicopters to pick up the hostages in the Colombian jungle.
Envoys from France, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba and Argentina, as well as Colombia's high commissioner for peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, have been waiting at Villavicencio as of Friday for the final hour of their mission.
Chavez told a state TV by phone late Saturday that he hoped the handover would happen Sunday or Monday.
However, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro told journalists on Sunday that the release of three hostages was likely to delay for some time.
Chavez blamed poor weather and complicated terrain in the region for the delay, but he also admitted if this were to drag on for days, the release process could collapse.
In a Dec. 9 statement the FARC offered to hand over to Venezuela former Colombian vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel born in captivity, and former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez.
The three are part of a group of around 45 high-profile captives that the rebel group is seeking to exchange for 500 jailed FARC fighters.
France has also campaigned for the release of the hostages as one of them is former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who has Colombian and French nationalities.
Betancourt was kidnapped in February 2002 alongside Rojas, then her running mate. Gonzalez was captured on Sept. 10, 2001.
Source: Xinhua
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