Thousands of people, including President Juan Manuel Santos, marched in Colombia’s main cities Tuesday to demand the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group free all its hostages and make peace.

Organized by social groups and the hostages’ relatives, the rallies began at 10:00 a.m. (1500 GMT) in more than 50 cities across the nation. Many protesters came clad in white clothes, chanting slogans demanding the release of all hostages, ten days after the rebel group murdered four men who had been held for over a decade.

Local TV reported large crowds of demonstrators in Bogota, Medellin, Cali and Barranquilla and in foreign cities like Caracas, Miami and Madrid.

“The whole country says ‘No more violence, no more kidnapping.’The people are saying they want peace,” Santos told a large crowd in the central city of Villeta, adding that “11 heroes of the fatherland,” namely policemen and soldiers, were still being held by the FARC in the Colombian jungle.

The FARC guerrilla group, which has been at war with the Colombian government for 47 years, is also holding an unknown number of civilians.

Editor: Yang Lina

English.news.cn   2011-12-07 12:08:05    FeedbackPrintRSS
BOGOTA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua)

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Posted by XinhuaNET.COM on 7 December 2011. Filed under Latin America News, News of the Year 2011, South America News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.