Colombia's ELN rebels free civilian hostage: Red Cross

BOGOTA: Colombia's second-largest rebel group, the ELN, released a civilian hostage Thursday, the Red Cross said, as the country seeks to salvage a peace process to end a half-century conflict.
"A civilian who was in the hands of the National Liberation Army (ELN) was handed over today to the International Committee of the Red Cross" in a remote area near the Venezuelan border, the humanitarian group said.
The former hostage, who was not identified, is being transported for a reunion with family members, it said.
The news came as the government sought to save a peace deal with a larger rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), that was rejected by voters in a referendum Sunday.
The shock vote result has left the government scrambling to save the deal, the product of nearly four years of negotiations.
The ELN's latest hostage release will come as a welcome bit of good news in what has been a terrible week for President Juan Manuel Santos, who has staked his legacy on making peace.
The ELN agreed in March to hold peace talks with the government, but Santos has said they cannot begin until the group stops seizing hostages.
A source close to the guerrillas told AFP the release was negotiated in talks between ELN leaders and government officials in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, with a view to opening peace talks "soon."
"This type of action is partly the fruit of mutually respectful conversations (between the government and ELN), of a desire not to involve civilians in the conflict and prepare for a public phase" of negotiations, said political scientist Victor de Currea, an expert on the ELN.
It is unclear how many hostages the ELN is now holding, but official sources say there are at least two.
The Red Cross has facilitated the release of 13 hostages held by rebels so far this year.
The Colombia conflict has killed more than 260,000 people and left 45,000 missing over five decades, drawing in several leftist guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.
The ELN, which was launched in 1964 to wage a Cuban Revolution-style uprising, today has an estimated 1,500 fighters.
The FARC, a Marxist guerrilla group launched the same year, has 5,765 fighters, it revealed as part of the peace process. — AFP