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FARC releases videotape of captivesSeveral call on Colombia to negotiate for their release
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A television station said Saturday that it has received a videotape sent by a leftist rebel group that shows footage of kidnapped Colombians. The group includes a governor, two ex-ministers and 12 soldiers who were abducted by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a group known by its Spanish acronym, FARC. The video appears to have been recorded in the jungle and was mailed Caracol, a news channel in Bogota. On the tape, Ernesto Cote, a military officer, said, "I was taken prisoner four years and four months ago. I send a very special greeting to my family, especially my children and my mother. I am well, and soon I will be with you." Several kidnapped politicians and officers demand that the government negotiate with the rebels to end their captivity. "We all hope a humanitarian agreement between the national government and the FARC will permit us to be liberated, to return to our homes," said Fernando Araugo, Colombia's former minister of development, on the tape. The government says it is open to the possibility of negotiations, but only with an international guarantee that all the kidnapped people under the group's control be set free. The president has always been open to such a deal, under conditions in accord with the United Nations, Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said. Relatives of those kidnapped people who appeared on the videotape said they were happy to know their loved ones were still alive. "To be able to see him, to know that he is alive, that's good," said Monica Yamhure, the wife of a former minister who was abducted. "He is thin but continues being the same person." Meanwhile, in thousands of other homes, the anguish over the fate of missing loved ones who did not appear on the tape continues. "We need deeds, we need results," said Maria Fernanda Perdomo, whose mother was kidnapped. "We need a humanitarian accord, we need the parties to negotiate with urgency and to arrange for the prisoners to return to their homes. Because each day that passes is a danger. They are in peril." About 3,500 people are believed to be held by rebel or paramilitary groups in Colombia.
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