The same Swiss mediator whose effort some suspect Uribe piggy-backed the rescue operation on is alleged to be the source of the ransom charge—and the Colombian government strikes back with counter-charges of payments to the FARC. From the Los Angeles Times, July 7:

BOGOTA — Colombian authorities sought over the weekend to discredit a Swiss academic and former intermediary in talks with a left-wing rebel group who has been linked to a disputed report that officials paid $20 million for last week's release of 15 high-profile hostages.

A Colombian government official who asked to remain unnamed said Sunday that authorities suspect Geneva-based Jean Pierre Gontard was the source for the Swiss radio report last week stating that officials paid a ransom for the release of the hostages...

Meanwhile, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told the newspaper El Tiempo that captured rebel computer files name Gontard as the courier for $480,000 seized by Costa Rican police at the behest of the Colombian government this year from a FARC hide-out in San Jose, the Costa Rican capital.

With the Colombian government's permission, Gontard has represented Switzerland in previous efforts to broker a peace agreement with FARC rebels.

On June 30, the government announced that Gontard and French diplomat Noel Saez had arrived in Colombia to resume those efforts. Two days later, onetime presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three American defense contractors and 11 Colombian police and soldiers were rescued after more than five years in rebel captivity.

"This Mr. Gontard is going to have to explain" why his name appeared in electronic messages of FARC commander Raul Reyes, since slain, as "transporter" of the $480,000, Santos told El Tiempo.

Gontard, reached at his home early today in Geneva, declined to comment on the $480,000 allegation, and strenuously denied leaking information to Swiss public station Radio Suisse Romande. "It absolutely was not me" who spoke to the radio program, Gontard said.