By Richard McColl
BOGOTA, Colombia
A Colombian guerrilla group released a soldier Friday, one week after his capture.
“The Liberation of the soldier Carlos Becerra is another step in the right direction,” said Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos via his Twitter account. “We hope that this liberation is another demonstration of the irreversible decision to end the conflict and that these sorts of actions no longer occur,” he added.
Carlos Beccerra was captured Dec. 19 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in a rural area near to the town of Santander de Quilichao in the department of Cauca in an attack that also resulted in the deaths of five other soldiers.
The release was announced by the FARC in a communiqué published on its website and written in Havana, where the guerrillas and the Colombian government have been engaged in peace dialogues since November 2012.
Becerra was handed over to members of the Red Cross and representatives from Cuba and Norway, the two guarantor nations for the peace talks, in an area known as Zumbico close to the town of Jambaló, Cauca.
The FARC, which insists that any soldier captured is a prisoner of war, had previously released a statement that indicated it would release Becerra to advance peace and on compassionate grounds. “The release is a new gesture of peace from the FARC, and at the same time it is a humanitarian act, considering that the soldier has slight injuries, caused during the combat,” the statement said.
The FARC began a unilateral “indefinite cease-fire” Dec. 20 that the group said it would end if it came under attack from the Colombian military.
The peace dialogues are currently on Christmas recess but have already reached agreements on land reform, political participation and illicit drugs.
Negotiators hope to bring an end to the armed conflict which has since 1964 caused the deaths of 220,000 people and displaced more than 5 million others.
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