Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's call on Sunday for Colombia's FARC insurgency to free all its hostages and end a decades-long armed struggle signals a surprising shift of its policy toward Latin America's oldest rebel force.
That also offers hope of mending the ties between Venezuela and Colombia, analysts said.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez greets supporters during a meeting with PSUV United Socialist Party members in Maracaibo June 7, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
"The guerrilla war is history," Chavez said on his weekly television and radio program, calling into question the existence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the largest anti-government rebel group in that country.
"At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place," he said.
He urged Alfonso Cano, the FARC's new leader, to release all the hostages from jungle camps.
"I think the time has come for the FARC to free everyone they have in the mountains. It would be a great, humanitarian gesture in exchange for nothing. That is what I propose to the new (FARC) leader," said the president.
