Venezuela releases coup plotters
Mr Chavez will host negotiations with a Columbian rebel group that is holding government officials hostage
Sunday, 02, Sep 2007 10:19
Venezuela has released 27 Colombians who were imprisoned for plotting a failed coup against president Hugo Chavez.
The prisoners, who are suspected of belonging to a rebel movement, have been pardoned and freed a day after the president said he would help the Colombian government in its negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels.
Venezuela's justice minister praised the president's move to forgive and free the convicted plotters and said that "a beautiful message" had been sent to the world through the gesture.
Yesterday, Mr Chavez extended an invitation to meet with Farc, a Marxist rebel group, for talks in his own country in a bid to boost hostage negotiations between Colombia's government and the guerrilla group.
Mr Chavez, a stern critic of the United States' influence in the region, announced the plan after talks with Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.
The socialist leader, who counts Fidel Castro and Bolivian president Evo Morales as allies, said he would try to negotiate a hostage exchange deal with the Marxist rebels who want the government to release arrested members of their movement in exchange for kidnapped officials.
Farc has been holding hostages for years, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
"I ask God that I can contribute to this matter of a humanitarian swap, to the matter of the search for peace, which is peace for all of us - peace for Venezuela, peace for Colombia, union and integration," said Mr Chavez.
Analysts viewed Mr Chavez's move as another attempt to increase his standing in the region after previously offering preferential gas agreements to neighbouring nations.