Venezuelan grow bitter over abductions (Colombian FARC)

[Bacchus39]

SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela -- In recent weeks, President Hugo Chávez has worked with fevered intensity to secure the release of Colombian hostages from rebel groups. He has appointed his interior minister to negotiate with guerrilla commanders and has flown the families of Colombian hostages to Venezuela's capital for meetings at the presidential palace.

But along this country's porous, 1,300-mile border with Colombia, Venezuelans have watched with disdain as their populist president has embraced the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The guerrillas, residents say, are at the root of their own heartbreak.

"It's no secret for anyone that the FARC kidnaps Venezuelans," said Joseline de Caires, whose mother-in-law and brother-in-law were both kidnapped in 2003 and never heard from again.

People here -- from small-time politicians to cattlemen, businessmen to farmers -- say the FARC and a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, are either directly responsible for kidnappings or have paid criminal organizations to carry them out. Venezuelans also note that, as the relatives of Colombian hostages have been lavished with attention, they rarely hear from their own government after loved ones are snatched into oblivion.


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The Venezuelan government's own figures show that 382 people were taken hostage last year, up from 232 in 2006 and 44 in 1999 -- Chávez's first year in office. That was before Colombia's long internal conflict with guerrillas began a violent, rapid expansion into Venezuela. But the government, which shares an ideological affinity with Colombia's rebels, officially denies that the FARC or ELN kidnap Venezuelans, or that the two groups hold hostages inside Venezuelan territory, as families here contend.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/12/AR2008021202762.html