VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (AFP) — Efforts to pick up three hostages deep in the Colombian jungle suffered another delay Sunday as their Marxist rebel captors had not named a spot for the handover, an envoy said.
"We still don't know where in Colombia the liberation of the three hostages will take place," said Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, chief go-between in talks to free the captives.
His announcement followed a confusing series of false starts for the mission. He earlier said he had received a green light from the rebels to proceed with the operation.
The mission to retrieve the hostages has advanced in fits and starts as a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) patrol advances cautiously through the jungle with the hostages -- among them a three-year-old boy -- and international envoys wait for them to give coordinates for the handover.
Rodriguez urged patience, saying he was confident the handover would take place "very soon."
"Everything is ready," he told reporters in Caracas. "But it must be understood that the (FARC) patrol accompanying the hostages has to take precautions."
Once the handover is complete, he said, "it's likely military actions will resume. The guerrillas should also expect that and prepare their retreat strategy and take all the security measures they need.
"That takes some time."
The rebels have been fighting against the government for decades and hold hundreds of hostages.
Rodriguez was expected later Sunday at an airport in the town from which the final rescue mission will take off -- Villavicencio, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bogota.
Two helicopters sent by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has spearheaded the operation under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have been on standby in this central Colombian town since Friday.
The operation would free former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo, 57; Clara Rojas, 44 and her three-year-old son Emmanuel, born to a rebel in captivity.
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 remains in FARC hands.
The handover was 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.
Colombian officials told Venezuela that they had until 6:59 pm (2359 GMT) Sunday to pick up the hostages. However Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, later suggested that the deadline was flexible.
Around 15 members of the hostages' families have travelled to Caracas, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is expected to deliver the three after they are released.
A team of international observers from Caracas, meanwhile, arrived Saturday at Villavicencio to oversee the releases.
The delegation includes former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, representatives from Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador France and Switzerland as well as US filmmaker Oliver Stone.
The foreign guests spent the night at a compound specially set up by the Colombian government.
"Operation Emmanuel" -- named after the boy born in captivity -- has taken months of delicate negotiations between Chavez, the Colombian government and the FARC rebels.
The Marxist group announced on December 18 it would release the two women and the child to Chavez or his representative, in its first hostage releases in more than five years.
It comes after months of failed negotiations between FARC and the Uribe government to swap 45 high-profile hostages for some 500 imprisoned guerrillas.
Those hostages include three US contractors whose plane was shot down as it conducted drug surveillance operations, as well as Colombian mayors, governors, legislators, and military officers.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
