President Niolas Sarkozy has appealed to Latin American Presidents on the Left including Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Argentina’s Kirchner, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega to pressure the left wing Guerrilla organization FARC to release Ingrid Betancourt. A French-Colombian dual citizen, Betancourt was kidnapped by FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces) in 2002, while she was running for president. Ortega, the President of Nicaragua, and former Sandinista (who the Contras took care of) agreed to Sarkozy’s request and urged FARC to release their captives, including Betancourt:

I want to make a plea to my dear brother, commander, Manuel Marulanda Velez… en the name of Latin American revolutionaries… as a symbol of working for peace… I ask you to free Ingrid Betancourt.

In this time of intense negotiations over the freedom and lives of more than a thousand Colombian hostages, the Colombian Government has its priorities in order and is putting all of their diplomatic energy into…. threatening Nicaragua? That’s right. Instead of being happy that a left wing hero is using his left wing cred to push for the release of hostages(which is precisely why Sarkozy asked Ortega, along with Chavez and the Kirchners, for his support) Colombia is focusing on semantics and demanding an apology:

The government … is obliged to reject phrases expressing brotherhood with terrorists…. Colombia awaits clarification of the statement to ensure such actions do not affect relations.

Maybe the hostage exchange being brokered in Colombia can offer a solution to this diplomatic spat. How about an apology exchange, in which Ortega apologizes for daring to call a Left Wing Guerilla leader “dear brother” (in order to appeal to his bro to release his hostages), as soon as Colombia’s President Uribe apologizes for supporting right wing death squads?