Israel joins mass protest against FARC kidnappings in Colombia

VIDEO - Hundreds of thousands of people in 165 countries in the world took part in a mass demonstration Monday, protesting against FARC –Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and their kidnapping of hostages held for years in hidden jungle camps. "We're tired of the indifference, tired of the terror," said Maria Marios-Rivera, a Colombian national residing in Tel Aviv, who attended the Israeli protest rally, held in front of the Colombian Embassy. Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos speaks about the demonstration (Video: Infolive.tv) "The guerilla in Colombia has been operating for nearly 40 years and has kidnapped over 1,000 people," said Rivera. "Some of then have been held in iron cages for over a decade… they only released two of them last month so people would stop calling them terrorists." Local television stations all around the world showed images of hundreds of Colombians braving freezing weather to march in Japan and expatriates gathered to protest in cities in the United States, Australia, Europe and South America. Demonstrators in Bogota (Photo: AFP) "We may be far away (from Colombia) but when we're in Israel we care about these people's lives and object what is essentially a crime against humanity," she added. "When we advertised the local protest in Tel Aviv over a 100 people signed up, many of them Colombian Jews, saying they wanted to come and help – this cannot go on." 'No more lies, no more killings' Thousands took the streets in Colombia, packing into Bogota's Bolivar Plaza, where large images of hostages were draped from the mayor's building and waving flags and wearing white T-shirts printed with "No more kidnapping, No more lies, No more killing, No more FARC," protesters streamed out of offices and homes as the rally snaked through Bogota to the Andean capital's main plaza. Recent videos showing hostages chained up and despondent after as long as a decade in captivity have fuelled outrage against FARC, which the United States and Europe brand a terrorist group funded by Colombia's cocaine trade. Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under President Alvaro Uribe, a Washington ally who has used billions of dollars in US aid to counter Latin America's oldest insurgency and the country's drug traffickers. But FARC is still holding 44 key hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans, it wants to exchange for jailed rebels. Officials say the rebels hold around 700 more captives for extortion. Protesting in Tel Aviv (Photo: Ofer Amram) Guerrilla hostages are now at the center of a dispute between Colombia and Venezuela's anti-US president, Hugo Chavez, over his role in brokering the release of captives. Campaigning on Facebook Before the march, FARC announced it would hand three of its hostages to Chavez, who in January negotiated the release of two other captives. But his call for the FARC to be removed from terrorism lists has fuelled tensions with Colombia. "We have already started making contacts and movements," Chavez said in Caracas, without giving a time-frame for the hostage rescue operation. The idea for the march originally came from a campaign by a group of students on the social networking Web site Facebook, where they called their protest a "Million Voices against the FARC." But the demonstration has underscored political divisions in Colombia. Supporters and opponents of Uribe accused each other of trying to score political points. Hostage families also expressed worries about retaliation against captives. Critics say the protest should have been against all armed groups, including paramilitaries accused of carrying out massacres in the name of counterinsurgency before they disarmed under a peace deal with Uribe. Attempts to reach a hostage deal are deadlocked over a rebel demand that Uribe demilitarize an area the size of New York City in southern Colombia. He has refused, saying that would allow the FARC to regroup, but has offered a smaller zone under international observation.

Israel joins mass protest against FARC kidnappings in Colombia

(VIDEO) Tel Aviv joins 165 major cities in world protest against Colombian guerilla kidnappings. Over 1,000 people said to have been taken in last 40 years