BOGOTÁ, Colombia — France called off a humanitarian mission Tuesday to treat and possibly free ailing hostage Ingrid Betancourt after Colombian rebels said they wouldn’t unilaterally release any more captives.
France’s Foreign Ministry said late Tuesday that there was no longer any reason to keep the mission by France, Spain and Switzerland in Colombia. A French plane has been waiting on a Bogotá airstrip for days with doctors hoping to reach Betancourt, who was said to be depressed and suffering from hepatitis B.
In a statement Tuesday, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia repeated what they have insisted on since 2005: that the government demilitarize two counties as the first step toward a broad hostage-prisoner swap. Only as part of such an exchange, they said, would Betancourt go free.
Late Tuesday, Colombia reported that six government soldiers had been killed after traveling into a mine field apparently set by the rebels and another five soldiers were wounded.
