Caracas - Venezuela's interior minister late Friday said the government had received video proof that ten hostages being held by left-wing Colombian rebels are still alive amidst a regional crisi over the rebels who hold them. Ramon Rodriguez Chacin made the announcement.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is attending a summit in the Dominican Republic, showed some of the videos to fellow presidents at the Rio Group summit which ended Friday.
The Venezuelan government had received the videos on Thursday, according to Chacin.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have been holding hundreds of hostages, many of them Colombian government officials such as one-time presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, for years.
Over recent weeks, left-wing populist Chavez has brokered the release of six hostages.
Last Saturday, Colombia provoked outrage in the region by a military strike across the Ecuadorian border to kill 24 FARC rebels, including second-in-command Raul Reyes.
In protest, Venezuela and Ecuador moved troops to the Colombian border and withdrew ambassadors from Bogota in protest. Harsh verbal charges were also exchanged.
But the three leaders - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Chavez - came to a compromise agreement at the Rio summit that could defuse the tensions.
Correa has backtracked in his demand that the region's presidents condemn Colombia's airstrike, and Uribe has pledged to not repeat such a military operation on a neighbour.
