Juan Carlos Lecompte has issued statements that are very critical of the President of Colombia. The husband of Ingrid Betancourt, currently held by FARC, declared that the Colombian president had ordered the capture in Venezuela of a prominent member of the rebel group after having learned that he was taking steps with Switzerland to have Ingrid liberated.

Lecompte was referring to the case of Rodrigo Granda, arrested on 13 December in Caracas in an incident that caused a diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Venezuela that the two governments are currently trying to put behind them.

Lecompte spoke on Radio Caracol. The husband of the former presidential candidate did not reveal the source of his information and he did not speculate about the reasons that might have driven the President to order Granda's arrest in the middle of negotiations that were presumed to be ongoing.

The Swiss Government has on several occasions expressed its wish to co-operate in the quest for peace in Colombia and in the bringing about of a humanitarian agreement to exchange FARC rebels for those hostages kidnapped by this group. Although it has acknowledged as well that it was a slow and difficult process.

President Uribe sets out on Saturday on a European trip in the course of which he will try to explain the negotiations that are ongoing with the paramilitaries and the position of the government in relation to the case of Ingrid Betancourt. The Colombian President will visit Madrid, Paris and Brussels. As regards Ingrid Betancourt, Uribe has indicated, "the Government has made every effort. (…) We have allowed the UN to mediate, as well as Switzerland and France".