Colombia Rebels Say U.S. 'Decisive' in American's Release
Colombia's FARC said Monday the U.S. State Department played a "decisive role" in the leftist guerrilla group's release of a US national held captive for four months.
Kevin Scott Sutay, a former U.S. Marine, was turned over Sunday to a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which handed him over to U.S. authorities.
"Without a doubt, the U.S. State Department played a decisive role in bringing this liberation to completion," Victoria Sandino, a FARC negotiator in peace talks here, said, reading from a statement.
She did not elaborate on what the State Department may have done behind the scenes to obtain Sutay's release.
U.S. Secretary of States John Kerry welcomed the release in a statement Sunday, thanking the Colombian government, the ICRC and U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
Jackson traveled to Colombia last month at the FARC's request for talks to secure Sutay's release.
Sutay was captured on June 20 in the central-eastern Colombian region of Guaviare during a trekking and tourism visit to the known guerrilla area.
In its statement Monday, the FARC blamed the government of President Juan Manuel Santos for delays in Sutay's release.
It cited the government's "intransigence" in refusing to allow the release to be made first to a former Colombian senator and then to Jackson.
The FARC had pledged to give up kidnappings as a condition for entering peace talks with the government nearly a year ago.
The talks, which are held in Havana, have made little progress, with consensus reached on only one of five agenda points so far.
The FARC, which is the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has about 8,000 fighters under arms and has been fighting the state since its founding in 1964.
Source: Agence France Presse
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