CARACAS (AFP) — Relatives of a child born to a hostage mother and a guerrilla father will undergo DNA testing Tuesday to determine whether the child is still a captive -- or in a Bogota orphanage, as the Colombian president has charged.
The whereabouts of Emmanuel Rojas could be crucial to the release of three hostages the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced on December 18, but which has stalled despite international efforts including those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
In a statement read by Chavez Monday, the FARC said it delayed the release because of military operations in the area where it was to take place. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the real reason was that the rebels could not produce Emmanuel Rojas.
Uribe caused a stir by saying that the two- to three-year-old child of Clara Rojas was actually in Bogota at a state-run orphanage of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF), and had been there since July 2006. He urged DNA tests on Emmanuel's grandmother to determine the truth.
Born in captivity from an alleged consensual relationship between hostage Clara Rojas and a FARC guerrilla, Emmanuel captured the imagination of the world when the rebels announced they would release him, his mother and lawmakwer Consuelo Gonzalez.
The rescue set up to pick up the hostages from the heart of the Colombian jungle has been dubbed "Operation Emmanuel."
Gonzalez and Rojas were snatched in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Rojas was a top aide to Franco-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was seized at the same time and was not due to be released with the others.
Uribe's doubts about Emmanuel's whereabouts was called "a whole bunch of smoke" by Chavez, who said the Colombian leader had "torpedoed" the release effort.
Chavez said he knew "Uribe and his team well. They're a team that makes up things."
Chavez later said he would pursue "new options" in the release effort.
Clara Rojas' brother, Ivan, said he and his mother were ready to collaborate with the DNA tests to confirm or deny Uribe's claim.
"Five experts from Colombia will arrive in Caracas at any moment" to take samples, Ivan Rojas said in a Caracas hotel, where his family has been awaiting the hostage release since last week.
Colombia's Attorney General Mario Iguaran said in Bogota the test results "could be ready in 10-15 days," and refused to speculate on Uribe's "hypothesis."
Uribe said his government began searching for Emmanuel after an internal FARC message intercepted in 2006 by the intelligence service suggested that the child was no longer in rebel hands.
Authorities reportedly found the child and moved him from a home in San Jose de Guaviare, 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of Bogota, to the ICBF facility in the capital.
"This boy bears a physical resemblance to Emmanuel. One of his arms is scarred and he shows signs of abuse," said Uribe.
The president referred to statements by an escaped hostage who said he saw the boy while in captivity, and that the child had cigarette burns on his body.
"There are some coincidences between this description and the child" at the ICBF facility, Uribe said.
"If the child proves to be Emmanuel," said Ivan Rojas, "it would be an outrage because it would mean all his rights were violated.
"But at least he would be free and on his way to regaining his rights and his identity."
Meanwhile, four helicopters supplied by Venezuela for the hostage pickup remained parked at an airport in Villavicencio, 95 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bogota, where the rescue operation is being coordinated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"We have no deadline," ICRC spokeswoman Barbara Hintermann said in Bogota. "It's the ICRC's decision to remain in Villavicencio because we work for the victims of this conflict."
The FARC has been fighting to overthrow the government for decades and holds hundreds of hostages, including Betancourt and three US contractors whose plane was shot down in 2003.
The hostage handover had been due to take place in the 310,000-square-kilometer (120,000-square-mile) wilderness of central and southeastern Colombia, where there are few roads but numerous landing strips used by drug traffickers.
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