According to a website linked to Colombian rebel group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), French journalist Romeo Langlois, 35, will be released after the rebels took him hostage last month.

Langlois, a correspondent with France 24 who had spent ten years in Colombia, was captured during a clash between FARC rebels and an army unit conducting a counter-narcotics operation on 28^th April.

The attack occurred while Langlois was reporting alongside the soldiers’ operation and dressed in military uniform. According to the Colombian Ministry of National Defence, four people were killed and six wounded. Langlois, FARC has claimed, was mistaken for a soldier and sustained an arm injury.

Though FARC began suggesting in early May that Langlois would be released shortly, the Colombian government rejected the rebels’ demand for a national and international debate on freedom of information in the depiction of their struggle.

The Colombian government has since changed tack, despite ongoing violence near the municipality of Malcao, in Guarija department, where 12 soldiers died last week in a FARC attack.

“The Colombian government is willing to provide all the facilities so the release occurs as quickly as possible,” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in a statement earlier this month. “But if you really want to be viewed well by the world, release him now and simply tell us where he is and we will go get him.”

In 2010, Langlois is reported to have spent time with a mobile FARC unit to prepare an annual report. Though he described the rebel group’s position as weakened, FARC continues to rely on kidnappings of government forces and civilians in order to force negotiation of their demands.

The left-wing rebel group had claimed to be holding hostage a French reporter, Roméo Langlois, who disappeared during a clash between the Colombian Army and FARC rebels on Saturday.

A female FARC member came forward to tell Colombian press that they are holding Langlois, who was injured during the attack, but is now recovering. In a telephone call to local journalists, the woman stated that when Langlois was captured, he was wearing a military uniform and therefore is a “prisoner of war.”

Langlois was in Caquetá, Southern Colombia, covering a military counternarcotic campaign, when the Colombian Army group was attacked and he had to give himself up to the FARC. Four others died in the attack.

The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) today issued a statement indicating that this act is against International Humanitarian Law, and against “freedom of expression.”

The IACHR’s declaration states that, “the murder, kidnapping, intimidation, threat to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of communications violate the fundamental rights of individuals and strongly restrict freedom of expression. It is the duty of the state to prevent and investigate such occurrences, to punish the perpetrators and ensure that victims receive due compensation.”

European officials also criticised the kidnapping, pointing out that the FARC has issued a statement in February declaring that the group was to cease all similar guerrilla actions.

“The High Representative (EU) calls for immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Langlois,” said a spokesperson for the European Union representative for foreign affairs, today. “Just two weeks ago, the FARC announced that they would renounce kidnapping of hostages as a means of getting income or political influence… but [Langlois] is a citizen,” and this is now a test of the groups “sincerity.”

French journalist, Romeo Langlois, has disappeared, along with five security force members, during a clash with the leftist Colombian guerrilla group.

Langlois, 35, a correspondent for news channel France 24 and French daily Le Figaro were reported missing on Saturday.

The journalist was accompanying troops on an anti-drug operation in the southern region of Caquetá when they were allegedly attacked by members of the Farc. The anti-drug trafficking mission has been responsible for destroying five cocaine-producing laboratories and seizing 440 kilos of coca paste.

When the operation moved to another clandestine centre, they were met with a volley of bullets from a guerrilla group who were guarding the laboratory. Three soldiers, a policeman and at least one rebel have been killed, and six security force members injured in the clash, according to the army.

Due to bad weather conditions, the military unit who was with the journalist was unable to send reinforcements immediately.

“Although there have been no formal claims of his abduction, we believe, in accord with the Colombian authorities, that our compatriot is most probably in the hands of the Farc,” stated a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry to the newspaper The Spectator.

Initially, it was assumed that Langlois had been captured by insurgents. The spokesman has demanded the “immediate release” of the journalist, after stressing that the guerrilla group “have committed publicly to renounce kidnappings.”

“As a war correspondent for whom it may be necessary to work in conflict zones, we demand that the Farc, if they have him, respect his life and must be responsible for whatever situation arises,” stated the French Foreign Minister, Alain Juppé.

The Colombian Defence Minister, Juan Carlos Pinzón, has been more cautious and has not apportioned the blame to the Farc for the kidnapping of the French citizen.

Langlois has been a foreign correspondent in Colombia for 12 years. A fellow reporter of French 24, Simone Bruno, who was also covering the operation, confirmed that so far “it is unknown what could have happened” to his companion. Bruno added that Langlois was one of the best known foreign journalists covering the armed conflict; and that he had always previously remained in contact with the news agencies.

The Farc announced in February that they had would end their former strategy of kidnappings they had held for decades as a method of soliciting funds and applying political pressure.

The last incident involving foreigner journalists held hostage in Colombia was in January 2003. Photographer Scott Dalton and journalist Ruth Morris, both American, were detained for 12 days for by the National Liberation Army (ELN), the second resurgent force in the country.

Colombian insurgency group ELN today released eleven oil workers kidnapped last week. The hostages were handed over to the Red Cross early this morning in northeast Colombia.

“Recently, in a rural area of Arauca, eleven employees of Concorcio Casanare Avanzada, the contracting firm of Oleoducto Bicentenario, were delivered by members of ELN to a team made up of representatives from Red Cross International, the catholic church, and ombudsman,” said Red Cross in a statement.

The hostages were kidnapped from the rural region that borders Venezuela, on the 28^th February. They were travelling by bus when the 8 oil workers, the bus driver, his assistant and an unidentified female were kidnapped.

The Red Cross and Colombian military blamed the ELN (National Liberation Army) for the abduction.

The ELN are a Marxist insurgency group, with between 3,000 to 5,000 members, making them the second largest guerrilla group in Colombia. The ELN, like the FARC, are notorious for kidnapping foreigners, especially employees of large oil firms, and holding them to ransom.

A man, identified by police as Martín Suárez, is holding his ex-girlfriend hostage in a house in Villa Corina; part of the municipality of Avellaneda.

According to witnesses who spoke to Clarín this morning, Suárez entered through a neighbour’s house next door, before holding his ex-girlfriend at knifepoint. He had previously been prohibited from entering his ex-girlfriend’s house as a result of a court order brought against him for crimes of abuse against the woman.

The situation came about, it is said, after Suárez went to the house to ask her why she had left him, and to plead with her to take him back.

Members of the special police unit ‘Halcón’ are trying to strike up a dialogue with Suárez with the help of his mother, who is also at the scene.

As reported by news channel TN, a police source has confirmed that Suárez is in a state of “desperation and jealousy”.

Luis Alberto Erazo, a Colombian police sergeant who had been held hostage by the left-wing Farc rebels, was rescued by government armed forces Saturday.  Four other hostages, also members of the security forces, were killed in the confrontation in the southern state of Caqueta.

Erazo, who had been held captive for twelve years, suffered facial wounds from grenades as he tried to escape into the jungle.  He came out of hiding when he heard chainsaws cutting to make a clearing for helicopters to land.

After Erazo’s rescue he was flown to Bogota for medical treatment and to be reunited with his girlfriend, 16-year-old daughter, and other family members.

Government troops, who had been in area for 45 days looking for rebels, had information that the Farc was holding some police as hostages although it is not officially known whether they were attempting a rescue mission.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos called Erazo a “national hero” after visiting him in the hospital.

It is believed that the Farc have at least 10 other security force members as hostages and many more civilians.

Four members of the security forces who were being held hostage were murdered by left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels today in the Colombian region of Caqueta.

The victims were being held hostages for more than 12 years after being captured in rebel attacks.

Juan Carlos Pinzon, minister of defence, stated that “they were cruelly murdered with coups de grace”, revealing that chains were found alongside their bodies, which presumably were used to hold them captive.

Hours after authorities found the four bodies, a fifth hostage was found alive.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos declared the rebels were “solely responsible” for the deaths and said the act was “a crime against humanity”.

Four men armed with pistols broke into an apartment in on Calle Araoz in Palermo early this morning and held a family of four hostage for roughly nine hours before they surrendered to the police. The victims were left unharmed.

At 6:30 am, Dora, the landlord of the apartment building, was washing sidewalk in front of the building when the delinquents shoved her inside and demanded she take them to her apartment on the tenth floor.

Neighbors heard screams coming from the apartment and called the police.

The motive was to burglarize the apartment, but their plan went awry when the police were notified. Out of fear of arrest, they took the family who occupied the apartment hostage.

Television news networks made it to the scene as the four men held the family hostage on their balcony. As the cameras rolled, it became clear that all of the men were wielding hand guns.

After a few hours of intense standoff, one of the hostage-takers threatened to throw one of the victims off the balcony, ‘Infobae.com’ reports.

The men surrendered this afternoon and the police took them into custody.

‘La Nacion’ says the criminals were between the ages of 20 and 27. All had committed crimes similar to this in the past.