Senator Piedad Cordoba, leader of activist group “Colombians for Peace,” said that if the government carries out a humanitarian exchange of incarcerated guerrillas for FARC hostages, the freed guerrillas should not return to the FARC but “would need to be reintegrated in social programs.”
The Colombian senator, who is currently in Europe raising support for a bilateral release of FARC hostages for incarcerated guerrillas, suggested that professors-turned-FARC members be analyzed to see if they could be “reinserted into society as teachers.”
“Colombia needs to assume the responsibility of the reinsertion [into society] of these people, especially when many of them are highly trained and could be useful to the country,” Cordoba said.
The senator’s comments echo a statement by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe several weeks ago that his administration is “not against a humanitarian exchange provided that the released FARC fighters do not return to the FARC.”
Cordoba is in Switzerland, one of the stops in her tour of Europe to campaign for international support for a humanitarian exchange, and to seek “a political solution to the conflict.”
As well as Switzerland, the humanitarian exchange advocate will visit Spain, France and Britain to rally support for her cause.
A humanitarian exchange appeared on the agenda after the FARC’s release of two hostages. Following the release, the FARC announced that they will not participate in any further unilateral hostage liberations but will only take part in humanitarian exchanges.
