Geneva/Bogotá (ICRC) – This morning, in the rural area of Guaviare department, Colombia, the FARC-EP handed over Gloria Polanco, Luis Eladio Pérez, Eduardo Géchem and Orlando
Beltrán to a humanitarian mission led by delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Following the handover, two helicopters bearing the ICRC emblem will head
for Venezuela, where the former hostages will be reunited with their families and loved ones.
The ICRC wishes to express its appreciation to all parties – especially the governments
of Colombia and Venezuela, and the FARC-EP – for helping to make this humanitarian operation a success and enabling these four people to rejoin their families after several years in
captivity.
The ICRC continues to be concerned about the hostages still in the hands of armed groups, and about their families, still waiting for their relatives to be released.
As a neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian organization, the ICRC will continue to look for all possible means of obtaining the release of all the hostages as rapidly as possible.
A helicopter from Venezuela, marked with the International Red Cross logo, takes off at an airport in San Jose Del Guaviare February 27, 2008. The FARC guerrillas agreed to hand over ...
