CARACAS (AFP) — US former UN envoy Bill Richardson was in Caracas Saturday for talks with Venezuela's president aimed at helping secure the release of three US hostages held by leftist Colombian guerrillas.
Richardson, currently governor of the southwestern US state of New Mexico, is scheduled to meet President Hugo Chavez on Sunday in his quest to help obtain the release of three State Department contractors the guerrillas captured in 2003.
Chavez tried to mediate a prisoner swap between guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government in August and November 2007.
"I hope we could help, but we all know that what has happened in the last months is a Colombian issue. It is an internal Colombian issue," said Chavez on Saturday.
The FARC unilaterally released six hostages to Chavez representatives earlier in the year.
Richardson arrived in Caracas late Friday to "dialogue with president Chavez . . . especially about the condition of the hostages and to see how we can push forward a humanitarian agreement."
Richardson traveled to Venezuela on a request of the relatives of Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, the three US hostages.
"I believe that president Chavez can help and can have a role in this issue," Richardson told reporters upon arriving.
Richardson, who in January dropped his bid to be the Democratic party's 2008 presidential nominee, was United Nations ambassador 1997-1998 under president Bill Clinton. He helped negotiate the release of Americans in Iraq and North Korea in 1996, and of a US journalist in Sudan in 2006.
Richardson was seeking to become the first Hispanic US president.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
