Mission Begins to Rescue Hostages in Colombia

Chavez sends choppers into jungle
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2007 9:52 AM CST
Mission Begins to Rescue Hostages in Colombia
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, delivers a speech in Cota, Colombia, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2007. Colombia's government said Wednesday that it was canceling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's mediation role with leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, in a possible hostage...   (Associated Press)

Helicopters sent by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to rescue hostages from Colombian rebels have landed at the edge of a Colombian wilderness and are awaiting a go-ahead from the rebels, the BBC reports. Guerrillas plan to release two women, seized more than five years ago, and a young boy fathered in captivity. International observers shadowing the operation include filmmaker Oliver Stone.

Stone, an admirer of Chavez who is in Venezuela to research a documentary, called the hostage mission a "beautiful, great process." Chavez in exchange praised Stone as an "anti-imperialist...good man." The Colombian government, less enchanted with the mission, has accused Chavez of overstepping his bounds by establishing direct contact with the FARC rebel group. (More Hugo Chavez stories.)

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