Colombia offers prisoner exchange deal with FARC
Friday, 28 March 2008
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Colombia is offered to release jailed FARC guerrillas if the rebels free hostages they are holding, including the politician Ingrid Betancourt.
However, the Colombian Government says Ms Betancourt, who is understood to be seriously ill, must be freed first before the "humanitarian exchange" will be considered.
It is also insisting that any rebels freed from prison would have to promise not to resume activities with the FARC movement, which has been fighting the Colombian Government for more than 40 years.
Ms Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, has spent more than six years in FARC captivity in the jungles of Colombia and is understood to be suffering from Hepatitis B and a flesh-eating disease.
The rebels have already freed a number of other hostages in recent months following negotiations led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
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