Colombia's Interior and Justice Minister Carlos Holguin Monday accused the nation's largest guerilla group of "cheating and lying" after it failed to honor a public commitment to hand over three hostages.
"I call on everyone to demand that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) hand over all its hostages because there is no longer the trust needed to negotiate with this group," he said.
A key FARC hostage, a child born in captivity to kidnapped vice-presidential candidate Clara Rojas, turned out to be at an orphanage in the Colombian capital Bogota run by the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, a state body.
The guerillas admitted Friday that they could not hand over the boy and blamed the government for "kidnapping" the child.
FARC had previously said in a statement dated Dec. 18 that it would hand over former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez, Rojas and her son Emmanuel to Venezuela's president Chavez, who had been mediating between FARC and the government.
Although Chavez sent a team of international observers to a planned handover zone, the guerrillas did not make the transfer because of what they called "intense military operations" in the area.
In a separate radio interview Monday, Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said he would allow no more international commissions to free captives.
"They always doubted the government and believed FARC's lies," he said, because they did not understand Colombia or its guerrillas. He also restated the government's call for the guerrillas to hand over captives to the nation's army.
Source: Xinhua
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