President Chávez: I reaffirm my love for Colombia and keep at your service for the humanitarian swap
November 26, 2007
“We had made progress (in the humanitarian swap); there was a positive expectation to reach the accord; we talked with the hostages' relatives and then, for a reason, which is not a reason to me, Uribe unilaterally decided, without even consulting, without calling, to end the work that I was doing.'
Chávez said that his work as mediator was not for his own satisfaction but for the prisoners’ and their relatives and, especially, for Colombia (…); however, 'I respect the Colombian government's decision.'
Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba, facilitator for the humanitarian swap, expressed Thursday her sorrow for the decision taken by Colombian President Álvaro Uribe of ending with the negotiation made by her and President Chávez in the process to reach the humanitarian exchange with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Through a communiqué, President Uribe made public his decision pleading that the rupture was caused by a direct contact made by President Chávez through a phone call to the Colombia's Army Chief , Mario Montoya, to ask him about the FARC's hostages.
However, the presidential advisor José Obdulio Gaviria recognized that they just greeted each other in a brief conversation; however, he defined the phone call as 'very serious' that justified the drastic decision taken by the Colombian administration.
Bolivarian News Agency (ABN) / MinCI