Seeking talks, Colombia lawmakers see jailed rebels
Source: Reuters
BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Colombian lawmakers took doctors to visit imprisoned rebels on Thursday, a gesture they hoped would nudge Marxist guerrillas toward talks on releasing 62 hostages, including three kidnapped U.S. contract workers. The FARC rebels on Thursday reiterated that the three Americans were alive in a communique addressed to U.S. notables including civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, film director Oliver Stone, and actor Denzel Washington, urging them to pressure Washington to back a prisoner exchange. President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative Washington ally, has led a U.S.-backed drive to end Colombia's four-decade-old conflict, but the release of hostages has become one of his trickiest challenges since his re-election in May. The medical mission to attend rebels held in a Bogota prison comes after recent guerrilla attacks scuttled hopes of talks with the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Latin America's oldest insurgency. "We hope this first step, a humanitarian gesture amid a conflict, will convince the FARC to allow a medical mission to visit kidnapped Colombians," Senate president Dilian Fransisca Toro said after visiting Buen Pastor female prison. Americans Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Mark Gonsalves were captured during a February 2003 drug-eradication mission when rebels shot down their aircraft. The three men and French-Colombian national and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt are among 62 hostages the rebels want to swap for imprisoned guerrillas. Lawmakers and soldiers are among hundreds held hostage for as long as eight years in jungle camps. The last contact with them was a rebel video released in September showing regional lawmakers kidnapped more than four years ago pleading with Uribe to enter into talks with the FARC. The FARC, which Washington calls a terrorist group involved in drug trafficking, also wants the U.S. government to release two of its leaders who were extradited to the United States so they can be included in any prisoner swap. Uribe had appeared willing to enter talks, but he suspended attempts to reach out to the FARC three weeks ago after blaming the rebels for a car-bomb attack in Bogota. Rebels last week killed 17 officers in one of the worst blows to security forces this year.
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