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Hostage sends message of hope
14/05/2007 20:55 - (SA)
Lisbon - A Portuguese-born hostage held by rebels in Colombia for four years has sent a message of hope to his family saying he would be reunited with them one day, the Lusa news agency reported on Monday.
Marc Gonsalves, an American citizen of Portuguese origin, was captured in 2003 by the Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) Marxist movement, Colombia's largest and longest-fighting leftist rebel force.
Lusa quoted his mother Josephine Rosano as saying she had received a message last Friday sent by a Colombian member of parliament who is also being held hostage.
"I must tell my family they are the only reason why I still hold on," the son's message said.
It added: "That is why they must stay strong, particularly my beloved mother.
"Tomorrow you will feel all the love of a son grateful and proud of having such a brave mother.
"Sometime or other we will be reunited."
The message dated April 27, which Lusa said it had seen, was sent in an e-mail from Edison Nunez Perez, one of 12 Colombian parliamentary deputies seized in April 2002 by the FARC.
'Free the hostages'
It was passed on by his brother at his request to Mrs Rosano, who lives in Newark New Jersey, in the United States.
Gonsalves was seized with two other US citizens, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes, when the plane in which they were carrying out an anti-drug operation was shot down by rebels 350km southwest of the capital Bogota.
Last month a group of Colombian deputies held hostage including Edison Nunez Perez released a video reassuring their families and requesting mediation by Venezuela and the US to obtain a prisoner exchange.
The Farc wants to exchange 57 hostages for about 500 of its own people held in Colombian jails.
Last week Colombia's government offered to release militants to encourage the Far to free hostages, who include the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.
The Farc and other extremist groups have been blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths during four decades of political violence in the country.
- AFP
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