BOGOTA: Colombia’s FARC rebels freed two captured soldiers yesterday, the first step toward resuming peace talks which the government suspended after the insurgent group took five hostages, including an army general.
The halt in the two-year-old negotiations, taking place in Havana, threatened to derail efforts to end five decades of war between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, which has killed more than 200,000 people since it began in 1964.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said talks would not resume until all five hostages, including General Ruben Dario Alzate, a military official, a civilian lawyer and the two soldiers released yesterday, are freed.
The soldiers, Paulo Cesar Rivera and Jonathan Andres Diaz, were taken captive in the restive eastern department of Arauca during a military operation on November 9. REUTERS
