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BOGOTA-Thousands of Colombians took to the streets across the country and overseas on Monday in a huge protest against FARC guerrillas and their kidnapping of scores of hostages held captive for years in hidden jungle camps.Waving flags and wearing white T-shirts with the slogan "No More Kidnapping, No More Lies, No More Killing, No More FARC," protesters streamed out of offices and homes in Bogota as the march snaked toward the Andean capital's downtown plaza.Recent videos showing hostages chained up and despondent after as long as 10 years in captivity have fueled outrage against the FARC, which the United States and Europe brand a terrorist group funded by Colombia's cocaine trade."No more FARC, we don't want any more FARC, young people have to say no to the FARC, and tell them to stop their violence," said Jaime Martinez, a student wrapped in a Colombian flag and with "Peace" painted on his forehead.Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under President Alvaro Uribe, a Washington ally who has used billions of dollars in U.S. aid to counter Latin America's oldest insurgency and the country's drug traffickers.The FARC is still holding 44 key hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans, it wants to exchange for jailed rebels. Authorities say the rebels are holding around 700 more captives for extortion.Guerrilla hostages are now at the center of a fierce diplomatic dispute between Colombia and Venezuela's anti-U.S. president, Hugo Chavez, over his role in attempts to negotiate the release of FARC captives.Before the march, the FARC announced it would hand three of its hostages to Chavez, who in January brokered the release of two other captives. But his call for the FARC to be removed from terrorism lists has fueled tensions with Colombia.Local television showed images from overseas of hundreds of Colombians braving freezing weather to march in Tokyo while expatriates gathered to protest in cities in Australia and Europe.The idea for the march was originally born from a campaign by a group of students on the social networking Web site Facebook, where they called their protest a "Million Voices against the FARC."But the demonstration has underscored political divisions in Colombia. Supporters and opponents of Uribe accused each other of trying to score political points from the march.Critics say the protest should have been against all armed groups, including paramilitaries accused of carrying out massacres in the name of counterinsurgency before they disarmed under a peace deal with Uribe.Uribe is popular for his security crackdown, which has helped make cities and highways safer. But he faces criticism over a scandal tying some of his lawmaker allies to former commanders of the now-demobilized paramilitaries.As in the days of Noah....
