Ten government hostages (four soldiers and six policemen) held by a rebel group in Colombia for more than a decade were freed on Monday with great expectations but also skepticism because it is believed the same organization still has 400 civilian hostages.
Colombia's FARC rebels on Monday freed 10 members of the armed forces held hostage in jungle prison camps for more than a decade, the last of a group of captives the drug-funded group has held as bargaining chips to pressure the government.
Thirty years after the Falklands/Malvinas war, Latin America seems to be closing ranks behind Argentina's sovereignty claim over the disputed islands and reviving a bid for control in the resource-rich South Atlantic.
Colombia has consistently supported Bolivia in its mission to reclaim a passage to the Pacific Ocean and the country reiterated its support last week during a meeting between the two heads of state in Bogotá.
EU trade ministers agreed on Friday to approve a free trade pact with Colombia and Peru that could boost European car and chemical exports and lift food and mineral exports from the South American countries.
Uruguay’s minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Almagro described on Friday as ‘inadmissible” the exclusion of Cuba from the VI Summit of the Americas scheduled for next April 14/15 in Cartagena, Colombia.
Cuba said it was unacceptable that it will not be invited to an upcoming hemispheric summit in Colombia and blamed the United States for insisting that Cuba be excluded.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Venezuela's Hugo Chávez will return home next week from Cuba where he is recovering from surgery to remove a cancerous tumour.
Colombia's feared FARC rebel group said it would abandon its decades-long policy of economic kidnapping and free all military and police hostages it holds in jungle camps, another sign the drug-funded Marxist inspired insurgents may want peace.
The US State Department said on Monday that if Cuba wants to participate in the coming Summit of the Americas to be hosted by Colombia, it must first fully integrate to the Organization of American States and guarantee the basic liberties of its citizens.