Colombian leader to step in as hostage release stalls

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (AFP) — President Alvaro Uribe was Monday to travel to this Colombian city to meet international guarantors monitoring the potential release of three hostages by rebels, officials said.

"The president is coming to meet with international envoys," Luis Carlos Restrepo, the governement's point man in the peace process with Latin America's longest running insurgency, told a press conference.

"Basically, the only one responsible (for a delay) is the FARC which inexplicably, though they announced the release days ago, have not given any information to the Venezuelan government," Restrepo added.

"We have given all the necessary guarantees, but the FARC always lies and deceives," he said.

Uribe was expected in Villavicencio, 100...