Captive Colombia General's Release Delayed
Colombian guerrilla group FARC said Thursday it will release a general whose capture has derailed peace negotiations a day later than announced, delaying efforts to get the talks back on track.
"General (Ruben) Alzate and his companions will be released this Sunday," the leftist rebels said in a statement from Havana, where the suspended negotiations had been taking place.
The Colombian government had previously announced the release would take place Saturday.
Alzate, the FARC's highest-ranking captive in 50 years of conflict, was captured along with Corporal Jorge Rodriguez and army adviser Gloria Urrego on November 16 as they traveled to visit a civilian energy project in the western department of Choco.
"We can guarantee that General Alzate, Corporal Rodriguez and Dr Urrego will be able to embrace their families Sunday, unlike what happens with our members who are in Colombia's prisons," said the FARC.
Alzate, 55, heads a task force charged with fighting rebels and drug traffickers in jungle-covered Choco, a remote region on the Pacific coast.
His release is the key condition for the resumption of the two-year-old peace talks, the most promising effort yet to end a conflict that has killed 220,000 people over five decades.
Source: Agence France Presse
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