Colombia's FARC to release captured general
Baku, November 20, AZERTAC
The armed rebel group FARC and the Colombian government have announced that they have agreed on conditions for releasing a captured general and four other people.
A joint statement from Cuba and Norway, who helped broker the deal, said the two sides agreed "on the conditions for the release" of Colombian army General Ruben Dario Alzate and four others taken captive in recent days by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who had suspended the talks in Havana, immediately praised Wednesday's agreement, saying in a statement that government peace negotiators would return to the Cuban capital as soon as all the prisoners were released.
"God bless, I'm thrilled," Alzate's wife, Claudia Farfan, told the AP news agency upon receiving the news. "I can't wait for the moment to welcome my husband home."
Alzate, 55, went missing with Corporal Jorge Rodriguez and army adviser Gloria Urrego as they travelled by boat to visit a civilian energy project in Choco, where the general heads a task force responsible for fighting the rebels and where drug gangs are rife.
Elizondo said that the rebels had said that they will also release two other soldiers they have in captivity.
Those two soldiers are believed to be troops captured in Arauca, on the other side of the country on the border with Venezuela.
The military told Al Jazeera there was likely to be two separate handover meetings.
The conflict, which has at various times drawn in drug traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries, has killed more than 220,000 people and caused more than five million to flee their homes.
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