The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also called People’s Army, a terrorist group self-proclaimed the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization, has captured around 750 hostages, holding them in Columbia’s jungles. Only six of them were released in the last three months.

Both the United States and the European Union include the FARC on the list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Usually, their favorite procedure is a mechanism of prisoner exchange. This means liberating political and military hostages in exchange for the release of a number of jailed criminal rebels.

One of the victims was the French photographer and politician Ingrid Betancourt, kidnapped by the armed forces of Colombia on February 23, 2002, while campaigning for the presidency. She was captured at an unknown location in the Colombian jungle. As she has hepatitis B and a tropical skin ailment, she is in critical condition.

The rebel group said they would release the prisoners in exchange of two FARC’s leaders imprisoned in the United States.

“If there is a hope Mr. Chavez and Mr. Sarkozy will go to find Mrs. Betancourt at the frontier,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Romania, the Associated Press reports.

In an interview with Associated Press Television News, French Foreign Minister declared France could temporarily liberate Colombian rebels in its Caribbean territories as part of a deal to free Betancourt and other hostages.

The mission “depends on whether there was a prior agreement between the French and the FARC,” Carlos Lozano, director of Voz, the communist party newspaper, said, according to the AP.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe assured France he would do whatever it takes to help them rescue the hostage.