The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Colombia, Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro, praised this week the “extremely good will” of the government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) in their negotiations over a humanitarian accord that would open the door to the prompt release of several hostages being held by the Marxist group.

“I think there is much goodwill on both sides to come up with a humanitarian agreement -both President Uribe and the FARC have shown it,” the archbishop told Caracol Radio.

Regarding negotiations that would obtain the release of hostages being held by the FARC, Archbishop Castro said that talks with the guerrillas are not paralyzed and that the work of the Church and of the facilitators is being carried out with maximum discretion.

He revealed that an international commission, with the collaboration of the Church, is working with the utmost confidentiality to achieve an agreement between the two sides.

The archbishop urged that a humanitarian accord be adopted immediately and said, “Colombians should be confident and hopeful that the hostages will soon regain their freedom.”

He also called on the FARC to provide evidence that hostages are still alive.