Several call on Colombia to negotiate for their release
 
                  BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A television station said Saturday that it has
                  received a videotape sent by a leftist rebel group that shows footage of
                  kidnapped Colombians.

                  The group includes a governor, two ex-ministers and 12 soldiers who were
                  abducted by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a group
                  known by its Spanish acronym, FARC. The video appears to have been recorded in
                  the jungle and was mailed Caracol, a news channel in Bogota.

                  On the tape, Ernesto Cote, a military officer, said, "I was taken prisoner four years
                  and four months ago. I send a very special greeting to my family, especially my
                  children and my mother. I am well, and soon I will be with you."

                  Several kidnapped politicians and officers demand that the government negotiate
                  with the rebels to end their captivity.

                  "We all hope a humanitarian agreement between the national government and the
                  FARC will permit us to be liberated, to return to our homes," said Fernando Araugo,
                  Colombia's former minister of development, on the tape.

                  The government says it is open to the possibility of negotiations, but only with an
                  international guarantee that all the kidnapped people under the group's control be
                  set free.

                  The president has always been open to such a deal, under conditions in accord with
                  the United Nations, Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said.

                  Relatives of those kidnapped people who appeared on the videotape said they were
                  happy to know their loved ones were still alive.

                  "To be able to see him, to know that he is alive, that's good," said Monica Yamhure,
                  the wife of a former minister who was abducted. "He is thin but continues being the
                  same person."

                  Meanwhile, in thousands of other homes, the anguish over the fate of missing loved
                  ones who did not appear on the tape continues.

                  "We need deeds, we need results," said Maria Fernanda Perdomo, whose mother
                  was kidnapped.

                  "We need a humanitarian accord, we need the parties to negotiate with urgency and
                  to arrange for the prisoners to return to their homes. Because each day that passes
                  is a danger. They are in peril."

                  About 3,500 people are believed to be held by rebel or paramilitary groups in
                  Colombia.