Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba on Tuesday announced that two hostages being held by FARC guerrillas will be released in approximately one month.
“I think that with the will of the FARC and the government’s decision, we could be talking about the release in the first week of February” of military hostages Pablo Emilio Moncayo and Josue Calvo, stated Cordoba in a report by Semana.
Several months ago, the FARC announced the impending release of Moncayo and Calvo, who have been in captivity since December 1997 and April 2009 respectively.
Cordoba reiterated that Moncayo and Calvo will be the FARC’s last unilateral releases and that henceforth, the freedom of more than two dozen soldiers and police still being held by the guerrillas will only be gained through humanitarian exchanges of captives for imprisoned guerrillas.
Church spokesman Monsignor Juan Vicente Cordoba explained that the release of Moncayo and Calvo, which was originally expected to occur before the new year, was severely impeded by the kidnap and murder of the governor of Caqueta – for which the FARC claimed responsibility.
According to Semana, over the last two years, the FARC have released twelve politicians and officials whom they had held in captivity.
