The commander of the Colombian army, General Carlos Ospina announced toady that the order to free through military means hostages held by FARC was ratified by President Uribe.

"It is up to us to carry out actions that will lead to freedom for those kidnapped, as the President has confirmed", stated Ospina to local media. The general ruled out any suspension of operation in the vast forest regions where the army think the hostages are held.

The 25 political leaders, 34 officers and non-commissioned army officers and three US citizens, labelled by FARC as "exchangables", have been held for longs years, waiting for the guerrilla group and the government to decide to sign an agreement called a "humanitarian exchange". The majority of these hostages have been held during the last decade and some of them are now going into their ninth year deprived of liberty. None of them have had direct contact with their families and in the last two years proofs of life has not been received from either the soldiers or Ingrid Betancourt.

The warning yesterday by FARC who stated that " with Uribe no humanitarian exchange can take place", arguing that the President wanted to take advantage of this issue for electoral reasons, deserves a firm answer, the general stated. The latter referred to FARC as " crooks" and "clowns".

President Uribe has been accused by the families of some of the hostages of sabotaging diplomatic efforts of France, Spain and Switzerland to bring about talks between the guerrilla group and the Government and the families have warned that they are totally opposed to any efforts to rescue their loved ones by military means.

Juan Carlos Lecompte, husband of Ingrid Betancourt, held by FARC since February 2002 told La Jornada that since 13 December Uribe has shown that he has no wish to bring about a humanitarian exchange, by announcing in a rushed manner the advances made by France, Spain and Switzerland.

Both Lecompte and Yolanda Pulecio, Ingrid Betancourt's mother repeated that they are opposed to any attempted rescue through military means and they informed President Uribe that he would be held responsible before the country and before the international community "in the case of the deaths of the hostages". Ingrid Betancourt has dual Colombian-French nationality: this explains the continued interest of the Government of Jacques Chirac in the freeing of the former senator.

Following the statement by the senior military commander regarding the President's order, families of other hostages remembered that in 2003, during a failed rescue attempt to free a group of politicians and military personnel in FARC hands, only 2 of the 20 hostages survived.

The NGO, Asfamipaz, that represents families of military hostages held by FARC, told this newspaper that despite the ongoing problems in seeking an agreement, the intervention of France, Spain and Switzerland is bearing fruit, since- they stated- the meeting between representatives of the European countries and the leader of FARC is planned to take place.