Chavez doubts he can help Richardson due to Bogota stance

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday said he doubts he can help New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in his effort to secure the release of three U.S. military contractors held by Colombian guerrillas.

"I don't know if I'll be able to go on helping in that area because to give help, the parties with the problem have to accept help," Chavez said during a technology event held in Caracas.

"I'm going to listen to see how we can help. I hope we can, but we all know what happened in recent months with the Colombia affair, that it is a internal matter for Colombia to deal with," the Venezuelan president said.

Chavez said with reference to the Bogota government that if one of the parties doesn't cooperate it's practically impossible to take any kind of action in the matter.

"I can't go into the Colombian jungle to rescue those people, but hopefully something can be done," the president said.

The president said he would receive Richardson "with pleasure" and hoped that "the day will come when we can talk with the U.S. establishment with respect, as equals speaking to equals."

The three Americans whose release Richardson is seeking were captured by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, when their plane went down in a rebel-controlled jungle area in February 2003.

They are among a group of 40 high-value hostages - the most famous of whom is French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt - that the FARC says it is willing to exchange for hundreds of jailed rebels.

The guerrillas unilaterally freed six hostages this year to Venezuela's socialist government, releasing the captives after Chavez and Colombian opposition Sen. Piedad Cordoba had spent several months last year trying to broker a prisoner swap.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe pulled the plug on that effort late last year, accusing the Venezuelan leader of violating the terms of his mandate by talking directly to Colombia's army chief.

Earlier this month, the FARC said in a statement that Colombian Uribe "mortally wounded the hope for the humanitarian accord and peace" by killing top rebel commander Raul Reyes in a March 1 Colombian attack on a clandestine FARC camp in neighboring Ecuador.

Reyes was said to have been en route to a meeting with French envoys at the time of his death, and indications have emerged that Reyes was tracked to the site in Ecuador through monitoring of his communications with France and Venezuela on the hostage question.

The FARC, which has fought a decades-old armed struggle against a succession of Colombian governments, has consistently demanded that Bogota demilitarize two towns in southwestern Colombia to open the way for negotiations on a hostage-for-prisoner swap.

But Uribe, who is extremely popular in his homeland for bolstering security in urban areas and stepping up the fight against the FARC, has balked at the idea of withdrawing troops from the two municipalities and insists on the viability of military operations to rescue the FARC hostages, despite opposition from the captives' families.

The FARC is on both the U.S. and EU lists of terrorist groups.

EFE

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