EL UNIVERSAL

The Venezuelan Federation of Cattle-raisers (Fedenaga) rebuffed President Hugo Chávez's claims that the guerrilla groups in Colombia had not kidnapped Venezuelan citizens, and rather Fedenaga's vice-president Manuel Cipriano Heredia underscored that 68 Venezuelans are held in captivity, "and many of them are in the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC)."

"The FARC are sending letters to them (the relatives of the hostages) to provide information and ask for a ransom. Therefore, for us, President Chávez's statement that the Colombian guerrilla groups have no Venezuelan held in captivity, is outrageous," Heredia asserted.

He added that Fedenaga forwarded a letter to the newly appointed Minister of the Interior and Justice Ramón Rodríguez Chacín. Farmers want to meet with Rodríguez Chacín to ask him to mediate with the Venezuelan ruler to meet with the relatives of the Venezuelan hostages.

According to Heredia, the hostages' relatives have unsuccessfully used "every possible means" to request a meeting with Chávez.

"President Chávez needs to know he has to solve Venezuela's domestic problems first and then he may take of others. Chávez has a historic responsibility to meet with the relatives of the people who are held as hostages," Heredia said, as quoted by Efe.

Further, he reminded that last September they met with former Interior Minister Pedro Carreño, the predecessor of Rodríguez Chacín, to address this issue, but they made no progress whatsoever.

During his weekly radio and TV show last Sunday, Chávez argued that the kidnappings the FARC performs in Colombia have a political reason, while most of the kidnappings in Venezuela have economic motivations and are performed by organized criminals who ask for a ransom.

According to the latest report published by Fedenaga, dated December 29, 2007, last year 264 people were kidnapped in Venezuela, most of them (77) in northwestern Zulia state, on the border with Colombia.

The list with the states recording the highest rate of kidnappings in Venezuela includes Táchira (34), Barinas (31), Yaracuy (25), Capital District and Miranda (20), Mérida (16), Bolívar (15), Apure (10), Carabobo (10), Falcón (4), Portuguesa (4), Cojedes (3). Two people were kidnapped in the states of Aragua, Sucre, Trujillo, Anzoátegui, Nueva Esparta, Lara and Guárico, and one was kidnapped in Vargas state.

Translated by Maryflor Suárez R.
msuarez@eluniversal.com