COLOMBIA:COLOMBIAN AUTHORITIES sought over the weekend to discredit a Swiss academic and former intermediary in talks with Farc rebels who has been linked to a disputed report that officials paid $20 million (€12.8 million) for last week's release of 15 high-profile hostages.
A Colombian government official who asked to remain unnamed said on Sunday that authorities suspected Geneva-based Jean-Pierre Gontard was the source for the Swiss radio report last week stating that officials paid a ransom for the release of the hostages.
Officials have denied a ransom was paid and said the rescue was based on subterfuge and infiltration of the rebel high command.
The notion of paying ransom is extremely sensitive here.
Meanwhile, Colombian defence minister Juan Manuel Santos told El Tiemponewspaper that captured rebel computer files named Mr Gontard as the courier for $480,000 seized by Costa Rican police at the behest of the Colombian government earlier this year.
With the Colombian government's permission, Mr Gontard has represented Switzerland in past efforts to broker a peace agreement with Farc.
On June 30th, the government announced that he and French diplomat Noel Saez had arrived in Colombia to resume those efforts. Two days later, Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others were rescued after more than five years in captivity.
Mr Santos said Mr Gontard was "going to have to explain" why his name appeared in electronic messages of Farc commander Raúl Reyes - who has since been killed - as "transporter" of the $480,000.
Mr Gontard, speaking from Geneva early yesterday, declined to comment on the $480,000 allegation, but denied leaking information to Radio Suisse Romande. "It absolutely was not me [who spoke to the radio programme]," he said.
On July 4th, the station quoted a "reliable" source saying $20 million was paid to the rebel commander known as Cesar, the alias of Gerardo Antonio Aguilar. It was he who delivered the hostages to Colombian commandos posing as humanitarian workers. Cesar was taken into custody, along with a subordinate, after the operation.
The report raised doubts about the official version that the helicopter-aided release was based on a ruse fed to the rebels.
It suggested that Colombian authorities had managed to compromise Cesar, who was charged with holding the hostages. That happened, the report said, through discussions with his girlfriend, a rebel who was captured earlier this year. The money was to be paid to Cesar, not Farc, the radio report said.
Mr Gontard has been coming to Colombia for years as the Swiss representative of a three-nation team, including Spain and France, that have facilitated talks between Farc and the Colombian government.
Mr Santos called the report of a $20 million ransom "absolutely false". - ( LA Times-Washington Post service)