Colombia hostage release talks hit new snag
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Matthew Scott was able to escape and was found wandering in the jungle.
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Matthew Scott,19, was taken hostage in Colombia September 12 and spent 12 days eluding his captors. CNN's Karl Penhaul reports
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BOGOTA, Colombia -- On-again, off-again plans by Colombian leftist rebels to free seven foreign tourists taken hostage last month have hit another snag, a Roman Catholic Church official said on Friday.
Archbishop Alberto Giraldo told local radio that the government objects to plans by the Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army, known by its Spanish initials ELN, to release the prisoners one by one, starting next week with a Spanish Basque backpacker.
The government wants all the hostages, who include four Israelis, a German and a Briton, freed at the same time.
"This was the demand of the government," said Giraldo, who is mediating for the hostages' release. "The church is the last to throw in the towel ... But it is waiting for the most minimal sign from ELN sectors, once they have some proposal."
ELN rebels seized eight hikers on Sept. 12 near the ruins of an ancient Indian city in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains. One hostage, a Briton, escaped and wandered for 12 days in the jungle before he was rescued by Indians last month.
The ELN, which kidnaps hundreds of people for ransom every year, said it abducted the young backpackers to mark the 30th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende.
The rebels have dropped demands for journalists and politicians from Spain's Basque region to witness the release of Basque backpacker Asier Huegun.
But the ELN is insisting that a humanitarian mission check the condition of Indians living in the Sierra Nevada mountains following reports of killings by right-wing death squads.
The government says it will only send the humanitarian mission once the hostages are released.
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