"I made a call on the FARC to liberate all the kidnapped ones, and I also said that if I were a guerrilla I wouldn't kidnap anyone, this is a conduct I can't share," he said. "In addition, I said they had to make a major effort for peace, and I added that, from my point of view, the time for the rifles is already over."
Already, he continued, "this isn't the hour of guerrilla fronts, it's the hour of the people."
Speaking on Thursday at the conference of information ministers on Margarita Island, he applauded the freeing of the hostages without bloodshed. "From here on, we follow the order and the disposition to help not only in the liberation of up to the last hostage but beyond that."
Chavez was once suspected of sympathy for the FARC amid unproven allegations that he might also have helped them with weapons, finance and the use of a Venezuelan port, BUT is deemed to have distanced himself from the guerrillas as events turned against them.
On March 1, the FARC's deputy commander and "foreign minister," Raul Reyes was killed in a Colombian military attack on a guerrilla camp inside Ecuador.
Barely three weeks later, the FARC’s overall commander, Manuel Marulander -- alias tirofijo or "sure-shot" -- was said to have died of natural causes.
The President sent Betancourt a kiss. "We put our bets on you and one day I said: if we could go to the densest Colombian jungle, I in person would seek out Ingrid and the compañeros of Ingrid, I'd go." Fortunately, he added, that hadn't been necessary.
Chavez said he'd called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to congratulate him. Time was when Chavez had little or no time for Uribe, perceiving him as a stooge of Washington and "neoliberal" free market capitalism. The President reminded Uribe they were to meet "soon" on Venezuelan territory. "We're expecting him soon, he's going to visit us and he will be received as always, as a brother, as a friend," Chavez declared.
Chavez acknowledged that the two had had their differences, but signaled that as far as he was concerned that was all over. "We've said hard things," he said. "But that's past and, mind you, it's passed for ever." Bogota hopes the meeting might take place in the second half of this month. The agenda is still being worked upon and could include the thorny issue posed by two presidents' widely differing views of relations with Washington.
Chavez returned to his familiar theme of anti-imperialism, and this time it was not only the United States that was in his sights. So was the European Union (EU) after tightening the rules on illegal immigrants. It wasn't enough to raise voices, Chavez said, there had to be reprisals. "Here, for example, there are many European investments in oil and gas and they want to see more," he said. "We could make a law for the return of this capital."
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