May 18, 2005
Venezuela extradites FARC member to Colombia

(Insidecostarica.com) - "The Venezuelan government extradited to Colombia a rebel who had been involved in a kidnapping there, the local press reported.

Juan Martínez, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was captured in February during an operation to rescue Maura Villareal, mother of Venezuelan baseball player Ugueth Urbina, Venezuelan government officials were quoted as saying by local media.

Urbina is the pitcher of Detroit Tigers in the United States.

The 20,000-strong FARC is Colombia's largest insurgent organization which has been locked in a four-decade civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries fight one another. The conflicts kill more than 3,000 people a year".