However, Sen. Córdoba said also that she does not know when it will happen. So far, she has met the International Red Cross and government officials to prepare the technical conditions for the possible release.

Although the International Red Cross was involved, it will not stay in the commission to receive the released hostages. There will not be also delegates from the international community, according to the will of the government. Farc promised to release three policemen and a soldier since last December through a group of Colombian intellectuals leaded by Sen. Córdoba.

The Colombian politician, who has led also a strong opposition to the government of President Uribe, was heavy criticized by Minister Santos who in the first week of January that it was just a show to give political importance to her, due to the delays in the promised release.

However, the delays of Farc in giving the promised information of the release, has put Sen. Córdoba at the center of the debate, when Minister Santos declared that it was just a show to give political importance to Córdoba. The Minister sent also a public message to the Farc inviting to consider the pain of the hostages families and haveing a good willing.

Farc promised at the end of 2008 that would release some hostages to show its commitment in the humanitarian interchange and peace dialogues. It hold also letter correspondence with a group of Colombian intellectuals presided by Sen. Piedad Córdoba, a fact that has disliked the government of President Álvaro Uribe.

The government refused also the proposal of international mediation in the possible release of hostages. Sen. Córdoba said that Farc will communicate two spots for the release and that it should be by 15th January. She would receive the hostages, according to her own words.

She said to the mass media today that she is looking to know details as time, place and way of the release. She is leading a group called “Colombians for the peace” in order to make real the release of the several persons retained by the insurgent group in the Colombian forests since several years ago. Farc promised at the beginning of December that would free six persons as a sign of commitment in the intentions for peace in Colombia.

Sen. Córdoba said that it is possible she will meet president Álvaro Uribe after January 4th.

“The Yes of the President is the answer to a national and international call” (Mgr. Castro, President of the Colombian Conference of Bishops)

“The Farc must answer in a constructive form” (Nicaolas Sarkozy, President of France)

“The government waits the biggest surrounding of guerrilla troops of the history of the Farc” (Caracol Broadcasting citing Frank Pearl, top presidential councilor.)

[Foto Efe]

Bogotá – ColPas. Nobody can predict President Uribe. He uses to be at the center of hot critics from opponents inside and outside Colombia, object of admiration by many others and expectations by those who follow with care the long Colombian conflict. Apart of any kind of hot position at his side or against him, true is that Uribe has been the most influential Colombian president of his country and the region in the last 50 years, the same time the modern Colombian conflict has taken its place in history. A man of strong decisions based in history, with any fear to face journalists, political opponents and even other international leaders, Uribe amazed many with his last decision to say Yes to the proposal of the Colombian Catholic Church to open a zone in order to facilitate the so waited human interchange.

At its part, the Colombian Catholic Church has gained again a kind of leadership that was lost in this long problem of ten years as a mediator in any process. However, it can not claimed alone the praises. As the same Mgr. Castro, the President of the Colombian Conference of Bishops said, the Yes of the president is the result of a national an international claim.

His part is on the table. The answer should come now from the guerrilla and the way they will answer. Their Yes or kind of Yes will show their intentions not only to Uribe but to the international community. This guerrilla, openly supported by certain European organizations so segmental in their appreciation of the Colombian history – even if Farc hold hostages as long as ten years with little shame, might demonstrate now which kind of intention has in front to the compromise for a definite peace in Colombia or no. President Sarkozy of France said that Farc must answer in a constructive way, meaning that the Yes of Uribe was a constructive one to give a solution to the long Colombian problem.

What some media says about the decision of President Uribe to say Yes to a Talking Zone for the Humanitarian interchange with Farc

Caracol Broadcasting said that Sarkozy supports the zone of meetings proposed by Uribe and asked to Farc the release of Ingrid Betancourt. “It is a positive initiative and I wish very much that Farc will answer in a constructive way”, said Sarkozy cited by Caracol. The same Colombian broadcasting published an article where President Uribe accused the news agency Anncol of being terrorists. The agency, that runs news about Farc, were pointed out by the President as “dishonest” when they use the technological tools as Internet for terrorist aims and the publication of information of illegal gun groups. Uribe recognized that he does not know with certainty where are the responsible of the Anncol pages, but he said that he intends to follow them inside and outside Colombia: “What is serious to me is to have an Internet page of these gentlemen of Anncol to the service of terrorism. What they should do is to be at prison those gentlemen of Anncol, because it is supposed that they are professionals. Some of them live in Europe and they have opportunities in life. If I were a judge, I would condemn a bandit of those to a sentence longest than any of the farmers who were deceived by the guerrilla and are today torturing the kidnaps” said the president. To this respect the clandestine agency still not make any claim in its official page where it is used to attack the policies of Uribe and promote news about the guerrillas. Their updated article said “The last opportunity of Uribe” where Anncol states that it hopes that Uribe will not fail again and calls all the peoples of the world to light a candle for the success of the Humanitarian Interchange of both prisoners from both parts and for the Peace of Colombia.

The Venezuelan media, more busy with the defeated of the referendum of Chavez, gave little attention to the top news in Colombia this time. However, El Universal dedicates a dossier to the Colombian Conflict where the announcement of Uribe for a “Zone of Meeting” said that the Colombian president want to talk face by face with the Farc about the possibilities of a humanitarian interchange. The journal, one of the most important media in Venezuela, has an entrance about what is the Farc guerrillas and their leaders, a chronology of the mediation process of Cháves that was suspended by Uribe last month and created a strong distance between the two countries and other news and articles.

The French newspaper Le Figaro has published the messages of the son and daughter of the former presidential candidate of Colombia, Ingrid Betancour. Lorenzo and Mélanie Delloye Betancourt, sent a radio message from Paris and New York respectively through the French RFI broadcasting to their mother saying to hold until the waited moment comes. Lorenzo asked also to President Sarkozy that France should ask the help of the Argentinian President, Nestor Kirchner, to mediate in the process. Le Figaro has also a dossier dedicated to the problem of the Farc hostages but so far the prominent French newspaper does not publish allusions to the decision of Uribe of a Zone for Meetings.

The Colombian newspaper, El Tiempo, underlined the statement of Nicolas Sarkozy during the European-African Summit in Lisbon where he calls to the top leader of the Farc, Manuel Marulanda, to release without more delays Ingrid Betancourt to whom he calls a “woman with no limits”. Other articles of El Tiempo say that the Yes of the President is an answer to the national and international claim, according with the words of the President of the Colombian Conference of Bishop, Mgr. Castro. In other article it is said that the Minister of Defense of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, clarified that the Zone of Meeting is different to the Zone of Distension, proven by the former government of Andrés Pastrana with the guerrillas some years ago. “The difference is very simple: in the Clearing Zone, as it was defined in the past, the guerrilla comes in and the legitimate Public Force goes out. That is unacceptable.” The Zone for Meetings will have an extension of 150 kilometers sq. (93.15 miles sq.)

BBC World entitles “Colombian head offers talks zone” and said that it comes after an increasing international pressure for a deal to secure the release of 45 high-profile hostages in return for rebel prisoners. “Addressing a police ceremony in Bogota, Mr Uribe said the zone would be in a rural and sparsely populated area where there were no military or police posts, and preferable with the presence of international observers, said the British newspaper. “The Catholic Church proposed this meeting zone and the government has indicated its readiness to accept it”, said Mr Uribe.