Florencia, Colombia: Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels Friday released two more hostages to the Red Cross, one of whom returned from captivity with a plea for national reconciliation. “The time has come to dialogue,” said Armando Acuna, 48, a Conservative Party politician, on his arrival here aboard a Brazilian helicopter loaned to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for the hostage release operation. With him was Henry Lopez, 25, a Colombian marine. They were picked up at separate locations by a committee that included a former Colombian senator who has served as an intermediary with the rebels, ICRC officials said. “I call out to the government, to all those who have taken up arms, to the Colombian people, to propose national unity in favor of peace and reconciliation,” said Acuna. “We cannot accept with indifference that the war be part of our daily life,” he said. Earlier he told a radio station that he had experienced “in the flesh the rigors of the war.” Rebels kidnapped Acuna, a municipal council member, on May 29, 2009 at the city council building in Garzon, in the southwestern department of Huila. Lopez was captured May 23, 2010 in the southwestern department of Caqueta after a clash with the guerrillas. He is the father of a young son. Both men were flown on a military aircraft to their families in Bogota. Acuna wore a suit and tie when he was released. The guerrillas gave him the dress clothes, he said. “They told me, ‘He was well dressed when they gave him to us, and we'll return him well dressed,'” Acuna said. Acuna and Lopez's release follows the freeing Wednesday of another kidnapped municipal council member, Marcos Baquero, 33, in a similar handover in the central department of Meta. Baquero, a Green Party member, came back with a pet ocelot – “my companion in captivity” – and a sketchbook full of pictures of jungle fauna. He said he plans to organize a march to demand that the FARC release all their hostages. “We have to end this kidnapping because it is very tough on the country and there are many families that are suffering this, not just mine,” he said. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels has promised to release five hostages in all. The remaining two – a policeman and a soldier – were to be let go on Sunday. The five were kidnapped in separate incidents over a two year period between 2007 and 2009. The FARC is holding 16 other police and soldiers they hope to swap for jailed guerrillas. FARC, which has been at war with the Colombian government since 1964, has between 7,000 and 11,000 fighters. The rebels have long demanded a hostage-for-prisoner swap, something both President Juan Manuel Santos and his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, have refused to consider. Meanwhile, the governor of the southern department of Cauca said 13 people were killed Thursday and early Friday in clashes between the FARC and a drug cartel called Los Rastrojos.
