Colombian rebels free hostage soldier - Red Cross

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Colombian rebels free hostage soldier - Red Cross
33 mins ago

Colombian rebels released a kidnapped soldier to a humanitarian mission in the remote southern jungle, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Sunday.

In the first of two planned handovers, guerrillas freed Josue Daniel Calvo, a soldier held for nearly a year since he was wounded in combat and captured by the FARC, Latin America's longest-running insurgency.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, planned to release the second of the 23 police and soldiers it held to the Red Cross team and leftist Senator Piedad Cordoba on Tuesday. "In the hours of the afternoon today in a rural part of Meta State, the soldier Jose Daniel Calvo was handed over by the FARC," the Red Cross said in a statement.

The release is the latest unilateral handover by the FARC, which calls it a goodwill gesture. But broader peace talks appear unlikely with President Alvaro Uribe, whose U.S.-backed campaign has battered the FARC to its weakest position in decades.

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