COLOMBIA:
Hostages Handed Over by
Rebels
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA, (IPS) -
Two Colombian
politicians held hostage
by the FARC guerrillas
are on their way to
Caracas in Venezuelan
helicopters sent to a
secret location in the
Colombian jungle early
Thursday.
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez, who
arranged the rescue
operation with
assistance from the
International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC),
said he had spoken to
the two women, Consuelo
González and Clara
Rojas, by phone and that
they were being flown to
Caracas in helicopters
bearing the Red Cross
symbol.
Former congresswoman
González, 57, was held
captive in the jungle by
the FARC (Revolutionary
Armed Forces of
Colombia) since 2001,
and former vice
presidential candidate
Rojas, 44, was seized in
2002.
The two helicopters flew
earlier from the town of
San Jose del Guaviare in
southeastern Colombia to
a secret spot in the
jungle.
The hostages’ families
are waiting anxiously in
the Venezuelan capital.
The Colombian government
had suspended all
military operations in
the area and the airport
of San José del Guaviare
was closed to all other
traffic.
ICRC official Barbara
Hintermann said the
group had received the
"happy news" that the
two women were in the
hands of her
organisation.
The ICRC, which was in
contact with the FARC
and with the governments
of Venezuela and
Colombia, had previously
warned that the rescue
mission could take
longer than one day. "It
depends on the
logistical organisation
of the humanitarian
mission, on weather
conditions and other
factors," said Red Cross
spokesman Yves Heller.
Along with ICRC
personnel, the
helicopters carried
Ramón Rodríguez Chacín,
who was recently named
interior minister of
Venezuela, and Cuban
Ambassador to Venezuela
Germán Sánchez.
The Venezuelan Foreign
Ministry had sent a
request in writing
asking Colombia to
provide the necessary "authorisation
and guarantees to allow
the humanitarian
operation to go ahead
with the merited
discretion."
Rodríguez Chacín had
been in contact with the
Colombian government’s
Peace Commissioner, Luis
Carlos Restrepo, "to
coordinate the practical
details."
The release was
unilaterally offered by
the FARC in compensation
to Chávez and Colombian
opposition Senator
Piedad Córdoba, whose
efforts to mediate a
humanitarian
hostage-prisoner swap
were abruptly cut short
in late November by
Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe.
Chávez and Córdoba
worked tirelessly for
three months to secure
the release of 45
hostages held by the
FARC, some for as long
as 10 years. The
captives are being held
by the rebels with the
aim of eventually
exchanging them for
imprisoned insurgents,
who number around 500.
On Tuesday, Restrepo
rectified statements by
Foreign Minister
Fernando Araújo, who had
announced Monday that
Colombia would not allow
any future international
humanitarian missions to
attempt to secure the
hostages’ release.
"I hope that sooner
rather than later, all
of the people living
this dramatic situation
in Colombia" will be
free, said Chávez, when
he announced Wednesday
that he had been given
the coordinates to the
secret location where
the handover took place
Thursday.
Senator Córdoba, who has
been the target of
scathing verbal attacks
by Colombian Defence
Minister Juan Manuel
Santos, an outspoken
critic of Chávez, cut
short her vacation in
Puerto Rico and flew to
the Venezuelan capital
on Wednesday.
Information received by
IPS in Caracas indicates
that documents proving
that other hostages are
still alive may have
already been gathered.
To avoid risks to the
messengers carrying the
"proof of life"
documents, they may have
been handed over by the
guerrillas to the
humanitarian mission,
along with the two
hostages.
On Nov. 29, the Uribe
administration captured
in Bogota two messengers
that the FARC had sent
to Chávez with videos
and letters showing that
their highest-profile
hostage, former
Colombian presidential
candidate Ingrid
Betancourt, as well as
three U.S. military
contractors, politician
Luis Eladio Pérez and 12
soldiers and policemen
were still alive.
The two women messengers
and a man who was
accompanying them as a
guide are now facing the
threat of extradition to
the United States.
Thursday’s rescue
operation took place 10
days after a first
attempt, which was
aborted because the FARC
were no longer holding
Emmanuel, the young son
born in captivity in
2004 to Rojas and a
guerrilla fighter. The
rebels had promised to
release Emmanuel along
with his mother and
González.
The failed hostage
release, which had been
dubbed "Operation
Emmanuel", was directed
by Chávez and
coordinated by the ICRC,
with the backing of
seven countries:
Argentina -- which sent
a delegation headed by
former president Néstor
Kirchner -- Bolivia,
Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador,
France and Switzerland,
and received heavy
international media
coverage.
But in the middle of
"Operation Emmanuel",
Uribe announced on New
Year’s Eve that the
guerrillas were stalling
because they no longer
had the little boy, and
not because of continued
Colombian military
operations in the area
or a lack of safety
guarantees, as the FARC
claimed.
According to Uribe, two
years ago the boy had
been seized by social
services in Bogota and
placed in a foster home,
because of suspicions of
mistreatment and neglect
by the family he had
been entrusted to by the
FARC when he was just
three months old.
In a statement dated
Jan. 2 and published
Jan. 4, the FARC
admitted that they no
longer had Emmanuel in
their custody.
On Jan. 4, the
authorities reported
that DNA tests carried
out with samples from
Emmanuel’s grandmother
and the boy who was in
the care of the
Colombian Family Welfare
Institute (ICBF) showed
a match.
"This boy, the son of a
guerrilla father, was
placed in Bogota under
the care of honest
people while a
humanitarian agreement
was being signed," said
the communiqué, although
it did not specify when
Emmanuel was placed with
the family.
The FARC also warned
that the government was
planning on arresting
and imprisoning "the
people put in charge of
taking care of the boy."
With respect to the
family in question, a
source who wished to
remain anonymous told
IPS that because of her
work, she was in a
position to know whether
anyone involved in the
hostage question had
been arrested in Bogota.
She said the FARC
leadership had been
deceived as to where and
in what conditions
Emmanuel was being held,
and maintained that the
family who had
supposedly been put in
charge of the boy was
probably not even real.
A former hostage, police
officer Frank Pinchao,
who after being held for
nearly nine years by the
FARC in the jungle
managed to escape, spoke
of Emmanuel in the
present tense when he
first made statements to
the press, on May 22.
"The boy is being taken
care of by the
guerrillas," he said at
the time. "They take him
for brief periods to his
mother (Clara Rojas) so
she can see him and hold
him, but then they take
him back, and it is the
guerrillas who are in
charge of raising him."
Pinchao said Rojas was
suffering terribly
because she was not
allowed to be with her
son.
"She had the baby in a
camp where the police
and military hostages
were held in one house
and the politicians and
the three Americans in
another. That’s where he
was born. I was able to
hold him, he’s very
healthy," said Pinchao,
who is accompanied at
all times by a police
escort.
Later, Pinchao changed
his version several
times. And after Uribe
announced that Emmanuel
was in the custody of
the ICBF, the former
hostage said he had only
seen the boy twice, and
that he had never held
him.
Whatever the case may
be, now that Rojas has
been released, the truth
about Emmanuel will
undoubtedly soon come
out. |
