- Adults in Colombia are split on whether people who have been kidnapped should be traded for rebels who are in jail, according to a poll by Gallup published in Semana. 45 per cent of respondents support the practice, while 48 per cent oppose it.

Álvaro Uribe has been Colombia's president since August 2002. In last May's election, he won a new four-year term with 62.2 per cent of all cast ballots. Uribe was able to run again after the House of Representatives and the Constitutional Court officially sanctioned a plan to allow presidential re-election in the South American country.

Two of Colombia's armed groups—the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)—finance their operations through kidnappings, and by trading drugs and precious metals. The FARC alone is believed to hold at least 2,500 hostages.

In January 2006, FARC second-in-command Raúl Reyes said the group would not enter talks with the current government, saying, "The possibility of an exchange of prisoners (for people who have been kidnapped by the FARC) will happen with a government other than Uribe's."

The United States and the European Union (EU) consider the FARC a terrorist organization. The armed group purportedly has between 17,000 and 20,000 members.

Polling Data

Do you support or oppose trading people who have been kidnapped for rebels who are in jail?

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