A senior member of Colombia’s largest left-wing guerrilla group, the FARC, stated that hostages of the rebel group are treated better than criminals held in Colombian prisons.
Jesus Santrich, a senior FARC leader, reportedly made his remarks from the negotiating table of current peace talks between the rebel group and the government.
The 40-year FARC veteran lambasted the Colombian prison system, saying it suffered “extreme inhumanity” to the “level of [causing] death,” while claiming that the current system treated prisoners as “human garbage.”
At the same time, Santrich claimed that FARC hostages lived in conditions that were “humanely acceptable.”
The FARC leader further noted that captured rebels serving prison sentences were to be considered “political prisoners, many of them union members, students, grassroots leaders that, [due to] state persecution of the opposition, are also stigmatized as terrorists in prisons in Colombia.”
Speaking from Havana, Cuba, the host city of the peace talks, Santrich claimed that many of the “massively overcrowded” Colombian prisons lack any kind of health system, blaming the National Penitentiary Institute for “generating situations of abuse and torture” where prisoners are subject to “amputations, beatings, torture and abuse.”
BACKGROUND: Colombian prisoners on hunger strike over overcrouding crisis
When asked to comment on the conditions of those held captive by the FARC, the rebel leader simply said “at least they are [held in] humanly acceptable conditions.”
The FARC negotiating team also noted that the peace talks were still moving with “a good rhythm,” however, they continued to insist that the imprisoned rebel leader “Simon Trinidad,” who is currently held in a United States prison, be allowed to take part in the peace talks, labeling it as a “compelling need.”
BACKGROUND: FARC ask Obama to pardon Simon Trinidad
