Colombian rebels have rejected a French mission to treat high-profile hostage Ingrid Betancourt, who is believed to be sick after more than six years captive in secret guerrilla camps in the jungle.
The rejection is a blow for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made releasing Betancourt a priority, and also dims hopes for negotiations to free scores of other captives held by the FARC or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
The medical mission flew into a Bogota air base last Thursday to wait to treat Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen and former Colombian presidential candidate. But the mission was in doubt from the start as Paris had no prior deal with the rebels.
"The French medical mission is not reasonable and even less so when it was not the result of any agreement," said the FARC statement dated April 4 and posted on a Web site which often carries rebel communiques.
Betancourt, three Americans and dozens of politicians, police and soldiers are among 40 political captives whom the FARC says it wants to exchange for jailed fighters. But the guerrillas and government are deadlocked over a hostage deal.
Colombia's four-decade-old conflict has eased under President Alvaro Uribe, a Washington ally who has used billions in US aid to fight Latin America's oldest surviving insurgency and the cocaine trade that helps fuel violence.
In the statement, the rebels stood by their demand that Uribe demilitarize a New York City-sized area around two rural towns, Florida and Pradera, to facilitate a prisoner swap.
Uribe, a conservative who is popular at home for driving back the rebels, has rejected the condition because he says it would allow the FARC to regroup. His own father was killed by guerrillas in a botched kidnapping attempt two decades ago.
"If at the start of the year, President Uribe had demilitarized Pradera and Florida for 45 days, Ingrid Betancourt and the soldiers and the jailed rebels would be free," the FARC said.