Reply #18: Colombia, Venezuela try again for hostage release [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

updated 2 hours, 33 minutes ago

Colombia, Venezuela try again for hostage release

(CNN) -- Helicopters could fly to Colombia Thursday to free two women who have been held hostage for years in the Colombian jungle.
(snip)

FARC has justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running and complex civil war that also has involved right-wing paramilitary units, government forces and drug traffickers.

The group's captives include three U.S. contractors who were captured when their plane went down in 2003 during a drug-eradication flight.

Betancourt, a one-time French-Colombian independent presidential candidate, and Rojas were kidnapped on February 23, 2002, after they ventured into rebel-held territory despite warnings of danger from the Colombian military.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/01/10/colombia.hostages/