Humanitarian exchange

The Humanitarian Exchange or Humanitarian Accord (Spanish: Acuerdo Humanitario, Intercambio Humanitario or Canje Humanitario) referred to a possible accord to exchange hostages for prisoners between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group and the Government of Colombia.

The President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe and the FARC conditioned the agreement, which was primarily pushed by the families of the victims, certain Colombian politicians and numerous governments that include France and Venezuela. After years of combat in the Colombian armed conflict the FARC guerrilla group kidnapped numerous government officials, politicians and military and police personnel to pressure the release of their members jailed by the government.

The FARC guerrillas originally demanded that in order to proceed with the humanitarian exchange, the government must demilitarize a zone, which are the municipalities of Pradera and Florida in the southern Department of Valle del Cauca. The government of Colombia maintained that this is impossible and non-negotiable. However, after Ingrid Betancourt and three American contractors were rescued in July 2008, the FARC dropped that demand because they no longer had their most famous bargaining chips.

The FARC guerrillas eventually dropped their prisoner exchange demand and released their last political hostages in April 2012.

The FARC began to kidnap in the early 1970s to obtain ransoms and maintain their operations. During the government of President Ernesto Samper the FARC began to kidnap high-profile government, political, military and law enforcement figures to push for the liberation of their comrades held in prisons by the government.

The FARC assaulted numerous villages and military garrisons and captured hundreds of military and police personnel, for example, Jhon Frank Pinchao. Members of the government were also kidnapped ranging from senators like Jorge Gechem Turbay [es], presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, 12 Valle del Cauca Deputies, 3 U.S. contractors who were working with Plan Colombia, among other cases.

During the presidency of Andrés Pastrana, the government and the FARC maintained a demilitarized zone in El Caguan in an attempt to negotiate the possibility of a peace process. The FARC freed 304 soldiers and policemen that were held to pressure the government. The Farc wanted to establish a permanent "Law of exchange" (Spanish: Ley del Canje) which would facilitate the exchange of prisoners with hostages when necessary.

On August 7, 2002, Álvaro Uribe took oath as president of Colombia. On this same date Uribe announced that he had attempted to contact United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and asked him to mediate. Annan accepted but only if the two parties agreed. The negotiations through spokesmen started.