After they released two of the hundreds of hostages they are holding (most simply for ransom), Hugo Chavez has welcomed the murderous, narcotics-trafficking FARC to the ranks of his Bolivarian revolution.
“These are not terrorist groups, they are real armies, real armies that occupy territory in Colombia, that occupy a position,” said President Chavez in an address to the Venezuelan National Assembly.
“One must give recognition to the Farc and the ELN, they are insurgent forces that have a political project, that have a Bolivarian project that is respected here.”
Former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez, released on Thursday after spending six years in the camps, said she was constantly afraid she would be killed by bombs or bullets from Colombian air force helicopters. She said some hostages are kept in shackles around the clock and chained to heavy chunks of wood at night.
“(Kidnapped) soldiers and police live chained all day by the neck,” Gonzalez told Colombia’s Caracol Radio. “Whatever they have to do, wherever they have to go, to bathe, to wash their clothes, they carry their chains.”
