Whatta farce!
Related: Colombian General Kidnapped
This stuff is getting old:
"Colombian rebels set to free general
HAVANA — The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country’s main rebel group, said Saturday that it has begun the process of freeing army General Ruben Dario Alzate, who was captured two weeks ago. The move could lead the rebels and Colombia’s government to revive peace talks, which are being held in Cuba. President Juan Manuel Santos had suspended 2-year-old talks after the general, a captain, and a lawyer were seized in western Colombia on Nov. 16. The three are set to be released to representatives of Cuba, Norway, and the Red Cross (AP)."
Sounds good to me.
"Colombian rebels free captured general" by Joshua Goodman, Associated Press December 01, 2014
BOGOTA — Colombia’s largest rebel group on Sunday freed an army general and two others whose capture led President Juan Manuel Santos to suspend peace talks.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia handed over General Ruben Alzate and his companions — an army corporal and military lawyer — to a humanitarian mission led by the International Red Cross.
The group was then shuttled by helicopter to a military base near Medellin, from where they’ll head to Bogota.
Alzate was the highest-ranking military officer captured by the rebels in 50 years of fighting and the incident immediately plunged into crisis peace talks taking place in Cuba.
Determined not to scuttle two years of slow but steady progress, the rebels dispatched from Havana one of their top commanders, a member of the ruling secretariat known by his alias Pastor Alape, to oversee the handover deep inside the jungles of western Colombia.
‘‘I’m infinitely happy,’’ said Claudia Farfan, wife of Alzate. ‘‘I can smile again.’’
Santos had conditioned the resumption of peace talks on the safe return of the general’s group as well as two rank-and-file soldiers taken during a firefight in a separate incident last month.
Alzate, a 55-year-old counterinsurgent expert, will have to answer tough questions about why he apparently violated military protocol and ventured upstream into the rebel-dominated Atrato River region dressed as a civilian and without his normal security detail.
To provoke an incident that would sabotage peace talks, obviously.
For its part, the rebel movement is calling for an immediate redesign of the 2-year-old peace process, which it says is threatened by the government’s refusal to accept a bilateral cease-fire.
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