{"id":3131,"date":"2008-04-23T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-23T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/guv-to-meet-with-venezuelan-leader-about-hostages\/"},"modified":"2008-04-23T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-23T16:32:00","slug":"guv-to-meet-with-venezuelan-leader-about-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/guv-to-meet-with-venezuelan-leader-about-hostages\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv to meet with Venezuelan leader about hostages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SA9k38kvqQI\/AAAAAAAAFiU\/jgjSM13DqEI\/s1600-h\/Richardson,+Bill.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SA9k38kvqQI\/AAAAAAAAFiU\/jgjSM13DqEI\/s200\/Richardson,+Bill.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192479807697299714\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Richardson<\/a> will travel to <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:city st=\"on\">Caracas<\/st1:city>, <st1:country-region st=\"on\">Venezuela<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> on Friday to meet with President <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hugo_Chavez\" target=\"_blank\">Hugo Chavez<\/a>. The trip is part of the governor\u2019s attempt to secure the release of three Americans who have been held hostage in <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Columbia<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> since 2003.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cThe hostage-negotiation process will take time and will require a sustained dialogue with key parties,\u201d <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said in a news release announcing the trip. \u201cIt is critically important that we do not lose sight of the plight of the hostages and their families. I believe President Chavez can play a positive role in the ultimate release of the hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The Americans are being held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Their families asked <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> earlier this year to assist in securing their release. Chavez is a key player in <st1:place st=\"on\">Latin  America<\/st1:place> who has influence well beyond his borders. Earlier this year, the group released six Colombian hostages to Chavez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is coordinating his trip with the State Department but is not an official envoy. He will also meet with U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy and other Venezuelan officials while he is there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In March, <st1:city st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:city> traveled to <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:city st=\"on\">Bogota<\/st1:city>, <st1:country-region st=\"on\">Colombia<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>, and met with President \u00c1lvaro Uribe, U.S. Ambassador William R. Brownfield and other officials about the hostages. <st1:city st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:city> has previously negotiated the release of hostages and political prisoners in <st1:country-region st=\"on\">Sudan<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st=\"on\">Iraq<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st=\"on\">North Korea<\/st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Cuba<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Bill Richardson will travel to Caracas, Venezuela on Friday to meet with President Hugo Chavez. The trip is part of the governor\u2019s attempt to secure the release of three Americans who have been held hostage in Columbia since 2003. \u201cThe hostage-negotiation process will take time and will require a sustained dialogue with key parties,\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}