12 Colombia deputies alive in rebel video after four years' captivity

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2006

BOGOTA (AFP) — Rebels released a video showing 12 Colombian lawmakers alive after four years in captivity and said Franco-Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was being treated well. "Rufino Varela here," said a legislator from the city of Cali in the video taken months ago.

"Today is August 8, 2006. We have been detained for 52 months and our health is deteriorating." AFP viewed the one-hour and 30 minute video. In another video, a rebel leader said Betancourt was well and enjoyed the same food and treatment as the rebels. Betancourt was a senator and presidential candidate in 2002, when the dual French-Colombian national was kidnapped by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The deputies appearing in the video asked President...