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Limbo
for Colombia Family Seeking Hostage Release
By VIVIAN SEQUERA
BOGOTA (AP) — A year after Colombian military agents
disguised as international aid workers helicoptered
Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military
contractors to freedom, an offer by their former
leftist rebel captors to unilaterally free two
hostages is in limbo.
Many blame President Alvaro Uribe, who says "drop by
drop" releases by the rebels end up being publicity
stunts for "terrorists" that complicate military
efforts to end the the country's decades-long
conflict once and for all.
As Colombia celebrates the daring Betancourt rescue
of July 2, 2008, the joy is not shared by the family
of Cpl. Pablo Emilio Moncayo, a soldier captured by
the rebels more than 11 years ago in an attack on a
remote mountain outpost.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
announced in mid-April it intended to free Moncayo.
On Monday, it said it would release a second soldier
with him.
But Uribe refused the FARC's demand that Sen. Piedad
Cordoba, a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, be present for any hostage handover. She has
attended five previous unilateral releases of a
total of 12 hostages since early 2008.
"The president has to make this decision," Cordoba
said Tuesday, telling reporters she's not publicly
pressing Uribe because it "only makes him more
uncomfortable."
One of the last unconditional handovers by the FARC,
in early February, was marred by military flyovers
that peace activists who accompanied Cordoba termed
harrassment. The government complained about Cordoba
inviting a journalist along.
She alone accompanied the International Red Cross
and a Brazilian helicopter crew on the next two
handovers.
The FARC is wary of any hostage release that
excludes Cordoba. In the rescue of Betancourt, the
Americans and 11 others, one of the Colombian agents
wore a Red Cross bib, violating international law.
The ruse consisted of tricking the hostages' jailers
— who are now themselves in jail — into believing an
international humanitarian group was transferring
them to a different FARC camp.
Uribe says he will only accept the International Red
Cross and the Roman Catholic Church as
intermediaries.
"We don't understand why exactly President Uribe
doesn't respect the life of Pablo Emilio,"
22-year-old Yuri Tatiana Moncayo, one of the captive
corporal's four sisters, told The Associated Press.
Uribe has condemned previous releases as "political
shows" meant to boost the image of the FARC, which
killed his father in a botched 1983 kidnapping and
whose defeat has been the cornerstone of his
7-year-old presidency.
"The president isn't going to facilitate any
unilateral liberation because he thinks that will
boost the FARC's political agenda and hurt the
government," said political analyst Claudia Lopez.
"It's cruel, but that's the way it is."
The chief of Colombia's armed forces, Gen. Freddy
Padilla, underlined that view Wednesday, criticizing
the rebels' handling of hostage releases.
"They want to convert each hostage release into a
prolonged two-month drama and this masks the true
intentions and conduct of this criminal insurgency,"
Padilla said in an interview with The Associated
Press.
Pablo Emilio was 19 when he was seized at a
communications post on 3,800-meter (12,470-foot)
Patascoy mountain on Dec. 21, 1997, in a rebel raid.
He is one of at least 23 soldiers and police
officers held by the insurgents.
In past releases, the FARC has given Cordoba alone
the coordinates of handover sites for security
reasons.
In a communique Monday, the rebels offered to free a
soldier they captured in April, Josue Daniel Calvo,
along with Moncayo. They reiterated their demand
that Cordoba must be present
Uribe has been cool to rebel overtures for prisoner
swaps, saying he prefers to obtain freedom for
hostages through military rescues.
Moncayo's father, Gustavo, opposes that idea.
The 57-year-old high school teacher, who walked half
the length of Colombia with a chain around his neck
in mid-2007 to promote a prisoner exchange, said
rescue operations could prevent future unilateral
liberations and extend the suffering of families
like his.
"Of course I want to see my son again," he said.
"But as a human being, apart from my pain and my
drama, I look at the problem ... and think of the
other hostages."
Associated Press writer Frank Bajak in Bogota
contributed to this report. |
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