BOGOTA (AFP)--Families of hostages held by Marxist FARC rebels met in Bogota Sunday with former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, asking her to work on their behalf during her Latin American tour.
Betancourt, a French-Colombian national, arrived in Colombia Saturday for the first time since she was rescued from the FARC after a six-year hostage ordeal.
Bogota marked her first stop in a tour pressing for Latin American leaders to help persuade the rebels to disarm and end their guerrilla war.
The 46-year-old was given "a broad mandate to lobby presidents around the world, especially in Latin America," said Marleny Orjuela, spokeswoman for soldiers held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The FARC still hold between 350 and 700 hostages, including 28 so-called "political hostages" - politicians, policemen and troops - that the rebels want to swap for about 500 imprisoned guerrillas.
"We agreed to give her broad powers so that she can launch an international dialogue and increase pressure on friendly Latin American countries in order to find a negotiated outcome to this problem," former hostage Oscar Lizcano told the press.
Saturday, Betancourt held a private meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, where she handed him a letter from his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, stating that France promises to work toward "a negotiated solution" to Colombia's protracted conflict with the leftist rebels.
Betancourt is scheduled to head to Ecuador on Monday before visiting Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela. Her goal is to ask presidents to join a renewed drive to get the FARC, the region's largest and oldest active rebel force, to lay down their arms, she said in a statement.
She flew to France with her family three weeks after her release on July 2. There, she said she had handed over to Uribe a letter from his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, in which the French leader promises to work toward "a negotiated solution" of Colombia's protracted conflict with leftist rebels.
Some activists have expressed ill-feeling toward Betancourt for leaving their country so soon after her rescue.
"We feel deeply for her six years of captivity, but she's using the (hostage) issue as a political platform," Oscar Morales, the founder of the "One Million Voices Against FARC" movement, told Bogota's El Tiempo newspaper.
Betancourt has said that she does not wish to return to politics in Colombia.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2008 16:31 ET (21:31 GMT)

Publié le 30 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones