Chávez appeals to FARC rebels to end guerrilla war

The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has urged the FARC rebel group in neighboring Colombia to end its four-decade insurgency and unconditionally release dozens of hostages. "The guerrilla war is history," said the left-wing leader in his weekly live television and radio program on June 8. "At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place." Chávez, who is widely admired within the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), has previously called for a negotiated settlement to the 44-year insurgency, but the tone and strength of his comments came as a surprise. Chávez has some ideological sympathy with the Marxist-inspired rebels and has called on governments around the world to remove them from lists of terrorist groups. Colombia has previously accused the Venezuelan president of colluding with the FARC and helping to finance it, claiming it found incriminating documents on a laptop belonging to a FARC leader recovered in March. Chávez vehemently denies assisting the group. But in his new comments, Chávez appealed personally to the new leader of the FARC for an end to the insurgency and, in particular, the release of hostages, including the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who has been held in various jungle camps for more than six years and is reportedly in poor physical and mental health. "I think the time has come for the FARC to free everyone they have in the mountains," Chávez told the group's leader, Alfonso Cano. "It would be a great, humanitarian gesture, in exchange for nothing." The FARC said last month that its former long-time leader, Manuel Marulanda, had died, an event seen by regional analysts as a possible opportunity for peace negotiations to begin. Chávez told Cano his group's continued activities provided a reason for the US to interfere in the region. He said: "You in the FARC should know something: you have become an excuse for the empire to threaten all of us. The day that peace arrives in Colombia, the empire will have no excuses." Washington gives Colombia hundreds of millions of dollars a year in military and other aid to fight the FARC, which finances itself through cocaine production and smuggling. It seems unlikely that Chávez's appeal will have any immediate impact. While the Venezuelan president helped mediate in the release of the first FARC hostages for years in January, the rebels say they will not free any more without a comprehensive peace deal. In a FARC statement posted on the internet, a commander from the group called for new elections in Colombia to rout the regime of the president, Alvaro Uribe, saying it still had the ultimate objective of "taking of power for the people." The comments by Chávez could at least help improve ties with Colombia's government. Relations dipped severely in March when Colombia raided a FARC camp just across the border in Ecuador. Chávez sent troops to his country's border with Colombia in sympathy with Ecuador.