Two women hostages were released by Colombia's FARC rebels and arrived in Venezuela on Thursday after more than six years of ordeal in the Colombian jungle.
The event was viewed as a major breakthrough in the long-running hostage crisis. However, the crisis is expected to linger on as over 40 high-profile hostages were still under FARC control.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), established in 1964, has got control of large areas in Colombian countryside in fight against the government forces and started seizing hostages 10 years ago.
Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, who were released Thursday, were among some 700 hostages held by the FARC, most of whom were soldiers and police.
FARC had proposed to exchange a group of some 45 hostages--including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. nationals, with 500 rebels jailed by the Colombian government.
The Colombian government refused the "prisoner swap" proposal, saying it would simply encourage the guerrillas to kidnap more and undermine the morale of the security forces that sacrifice so many lives to fight and capture the FARC rebels.
Instead, it proposed in August to create a safe-zone for a period of 90 days in which FARC and government delegates could meet on the issue.
As the proposal fell short of FARC demand of a "demilitarized-zone," the two sides did not carry out any direct negotiations but have relied on the mediation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez since then.
In November, the Colombian government officially halted Chavez in his mediation effort, saying he had broken rules by contacting Colombia's military officials on the issue.
Chavez continued talks with the FARC rebels and announced in late December that the rebel group agreed to handover to him three hostages: former Colombian congress women Consuelo Gonzalez, Betancourt's aide Clara Rojas and her three-year-old son Emmanuel.
The release attempt aborted on Dec. 31 as the Colombian government and FARC accused each other of not keeping previous promises.
FARC said the Colombian military was still staging operations against it in the promised "security zone" while Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the handover failed because FARC no longer had Emmanuel and the boy was actually living in a foster home in Bogota.
Analysts said the failed attempt revealed the deep-rooted distrust between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels as well as Chavez's limited influence on the issue.
Following Thursday's successful release, international pressure again mounted on President Uribe, who reiterated his wish to have direct talks with the FARC rebels.
However, the fate of the rest renowned hostages is still hard to tell since it takes time for the hard-line president to make concessions and find a middle ground with the rebels.
Source:Xinhua
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