July 5 (Reuters) - Colombian guerrillas have held hundreds of politicians, soldiers and police hostage for as long as nine years as victims of Latin America's oldest insurgency. Other armed groups and criminals also keep kidnap victims. * The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, began as a peasant army in the 1960s. Violence has dropped under President Alvaro Uribe's security campaign, but the FARC is still fighting, kidnapping and trafficking cocaine. * The FARC is holding around 60 key hostages it wants to exchange for jailed rebels in an agreement with Uribe. Some have been held for nearly a decade in secret jungle camps in remote parts of Colombia. * French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt is among the highest profile hostages in FARC captivity. She was captured in 2002 while on presidential campaign. * Three U.S. contract workers -- Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves -- were kidnapped after their aircraft crashed while on a counternarcotics mission. They were last heard from in 2003, but a police officer who escaped from the rebels recently said he saw them and Betancourt in April. * Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo was named to his post at the start of this year, just weeks after he escaped from the FARC after six years in captivity. * The FARC insists Uribe pull troops back from a swath of land the size of New York City to help broker talks. Uribe had agreed earlier to a proposal by France, Switzerland and Spain for a safe haven for talks. But he refuses to demilitarize a large area saying it will allow the FARC to regroup. * At the urging of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Uribe has released a top FARC commander in an attempt to broker a deal on hostages. Families are pressing Uribe to seek a humanitarian agreement and stop rescues by force. * Eleven politicians held by the FARC for more than five years were killed last month. The guerrillas said the men died in the cross fire during combat, but Uribe and the international community accuse the FARC of murdering them. The deaths have prompted outcry and protests in Colombia and overseas.
