Chavez to visit Bogota to aid hostage negotiations

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More than two months after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe unilaterally released leftist guerrilla leader Rodrigo Granda and dozens of other rebels in hopes the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, might reciprocate, none of the 56 political hostages the leftists are holding has been freed.

On Friday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives in Bogota for talks with Uribe on ways he might act as a mediator to secure the hostages’ release. But a seemingly insuperable obstacle remains: The rebels are insisting on the creation of a neutral zone in central Colombia where they can make the exchange and install themselves free of military harassment.

Uribe opposes such a zone, saying that a similar concession by former President Andres Pastrana did not bring the rebels any closer to a peace agreement, and that the rebels used the zone as a base for drug trafficking.

In any case, the families of the hostages, which include three U.S. defense contractor employees and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, are hoping Chavez, who is admired by the rebels, can work a miracle.

Posted by Chris Kraul in Bogota