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.

FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, is preparing to release ten of its hostages, paving the way for negotiations with the government.

Six police and four military hostages, some of whom have spent 14 years in captivity, are due to be released in two groups today and on Wednesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the humanitarian group Colombians for Peace will oversee the release operation, with two helicopters provided and manned by the Brazilian military.

The helicopters landed in the Colombian town of Villavicencio, 68 miles south of  Bogotá, yesterday. The rescue mission, set to leave at 8am (local time) today to release the hostages from their jungle captivity, has been delayed due to poor weather conditions.

Former Senator Piedad Córdoba has confirmed that they have the “coordinates” of the hostages’ location and that, once the weather clears, the release operation will go ahead as planned.

“Today the liberation process begins. People can rest assured that the process will happen. It is, in fact, a total success,” Córdoba told reporters.

Military operations have been temporarily suspended in the area. In the event of a successful release mission, the hostages will be transferred to Bogotá, where they will receive medical care.

Since 2008 Córdoba has been instrumental in the release of more than 20 political, police and military hostages that the FARC have held captive in exchange for the release of hundreds of their imprisoned guerrillas.

Other political and police hostages have been rescued in military operations, including the former presidential candidate and French-Colombian citizen Ingrid Betancourt in 2008.

The Colombian government has sought a low profile coverage of the release operation.

“These people who have suffered such inhuman conditions, shouldn’t have to return to a media show,” stated the foreign minister, Angela Holguín.

FARC is Colombia’s main guerrilla group with an estimate force of 9,000. If the handover takes place as planned, it will mark a crucial step towards the ending a civil war that has ravished the country for five decades.

In February, the paramilitary group proposed a dialogue with the government of Juan Manuel Santos. It has pledged to cease the abduction of civilians, a tactic that has used to finance the insurgency and pressurise the government.

The Red Cross announced major Guillermo Solórzano’s and corporal Salín San Miguel’s release operation suspension. They have been kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and are part of a series of release negotiations that started last week.

The entity’s spokesperson declared the liberations “were not possible when the helicopter arrived”. The cancelation took place due to bad weather conditions in the operation area.

Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, has disqualified the release process for being an “absurd media show”. He remarked that, while freeing some hostages, FARC continued to kidnap.

Meanwhile, former Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba, requested not to lose hopes on “building a peaceful scenario”. She explained that the guerrilla has “demonstrated that dialogue and not bullets lead to results”. Córdoba mediates the releasing negotiations as requested by FARC.

During the last week, FARC have released three hostages. One of them, policeman Carlos Alberto Ocampo, was not expected to be liberated in the course of the operation. His arrival in Bogotá was announced by Córdoba.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC