.gif)
The Venezuelan government could launch an operation Wednesday to pick up four hostages expected to be released by Colombian Marxist rebels, Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said Monday.
Chacin said Caracas had received the coordinates of the hostages' location from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and urged the neighbouring Colombian government to give the green light for the operation.
"We have faith that (the operation) will immediately be authorised," he told reporters.
"We could do it Wednesday with authorization. We have the ability to go and come back the same afternoon."
The four hostages are former lawmakers who are part of a group of 43 captives whom the FARC want to swap with the Colombian government for 500 rebels held in prison.
But the two sides have failed to agree on conditions for the exchange.
The unilateral release would come a month after the FARC freed two hostages to the leftist government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
