Colombia Releases FARC Prisoners–Inlcuding a Key FARC Leader

Steven Taylor | Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Cross-posted from La Política Colombiana:

Via the BBC: Colombia releases top Farc rebel

The Colombian government has released a jailed guerrilla leader in the hope he will encourage the rebels to release the 56 hostages they hold.

Rodrigo Granda, known as the Farc rebel group’s “foreign minister”, was freed as the authorities prepare to release up to 200 guerrillas from prison.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said French President Nicolas Sarkozy had pushed for Mr Granda’s release.

Among the hostages is French-Colombian politician, Ingrid Betancourt.

While it may well be that Uribe has chosen now to engage in this prisoner release as a way to deflect attention from the para-politics scandal, the bottom line is that ny including Granda, this cannot be characterized as a release of only scrubs.

About the Author: Steven is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Troy University in Alabama. He is the author of the book Voting Amid Violence: Electoral Democracy in Colombia, forthcoming from University of New England Press and the contributing editor on Colombia to the Library of Congress’s Handbook of Latin American Studies. He has his PhD from the University of Texas in Austin and a BA from the University of California at Irvine. He does most of his blogging at PoliBlog, which he started in February 2003.

• None Found

• Jim Jones Outstanding National Security Advisor Choice
• Cutting Defense to Fund National Security?
• Five Years (Updated)
• Obama’s Netroots Problem
• Caption Contest
• Swiss Approve Free Heroin, Keep Marijuana Illegal
• Bobby Jindal Presidential Bid Underway
• Military Recruiting Up as Economy Turns Down
• OTB Caption Jam^TM
• Terrorist Rampage Ended in Mumbai (Updated)

Tags | Latin America, Steven Taylor Colombia, FARC, Hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, Nicolas Sarkozy

| | Permalink | Send TrackBack

Comments are Closed