Rodrigo Granda

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Ricardo González also known as Rodrigo Granda is a Colombian Venezuelan, member of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He has served as international spokesman of the guerrilla organization. He currently faces criminal charges in Paraguay for his alleged involvement from an intellectual and logistic angle in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Cecilia Cubas, daughter of former President Raúl Cubas. His name became well-known because of the events that began on 13 December 2004 when he was captured in Venezuela by Colombian intelligence officials with extra-official support from Venezuelan police, and clandestinely transported to the Colombia-Venezuela border in Cúcuta where Colombian authorities legalized his capture. He had been in Caracas, Venezuela participating in a conference in representation of the FARC guerrilla, organization for which Granda is an international spokesman, for this he was dubbed as "FARC's foreign minister". Due to this unauthorized Colombian operation in Venezuelan territory, his arrest created a temporal severance of bilateral relations between the governments of Hugo Chávez and Álvaro Uribe. Granda was later released by the Colombian government after President of France Nicolas Sarkozy persuaded President Uribe to do so, as concession for the "humanitarian exchange" which consists in the exchange of criminals held by the government (included Granda) for hostages held by the FARC. On 8 October 2007 Granda visited FARC campsites in the mountains of Colombia and announced his return to the FARC to participate in the negotiations for a possible humanitarian exchange. In November 2007, Granda traveled to Venezuela along with alias Iván Márquez and other group of guerrillas to meet President Hugo Chávez and Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba in the Miraflores Palace, Caracas in an attempt to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. After the failure of the negotiations and the diplomatic tensions generated from this between the governments of Álvaro Uribe and Hugo Chávez, it was reported that Granda was among those registered to vote in Venezuela for the 2007 Venezuelan constitutional referendum.