COLOMBIA:
A New Life for Freed
Hostages and Their
Families
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA, (IPS) -
Wednesday marked the
start of a new chapter
in the life of Ángela
Rodríguez. Her husband,
Luis Eladio Pérez, who
was taken hostage in
June 2001 by Colombia’s
FARC guerrillas,
returned home after
being held captive in
the jungle for nearly
seven years.
Pérez was one of four
former lawmakers
unilaterally released by
the FARC (Revolutionary
Armed Forces of
Colombia) Wednesday as a
gesture of goodwill to
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez and
Colombian opposition
Senator Piedad Córdoba,
whose role as mediators
in the hostage talks was
abruptly cut short in
November by Colombian
President Álvaro Uribe.
The other hostages freed
along with Pérez were
Gloria Polanco, Orlando
Beltrán and Jorge
Eduardo Gechem, who were
kidnapped in separate
incidents in 2001 and
2002.
Despite Uribe’s decision
to cancel Chávez’s role
as a mediator, the FARC
unilaterally released
former politicians
Consuelo González and
Clara Rojas on Jan. 10,
handing them over to a
humanitarian mission led
by the Venezuelan
government and the Red
Cross.
Rodríguez and her two
children had reached the
point where they talked
about their husband and
father in the past tense
-- not because they
thought he would not
return, but "because we
knew very little about
the Luis Eladio of
today."
"I have always been
optimistic," she told
IPS at midnight on Feb.
2, after hearing on the
news that the FARC had
announced that they
would release her
husband. "I have always
thought they would come
back. I believe the FARC
are playing a political
card."
"I definitely think that
the Luis Eladio taken
away by the FARC will
not be the Luis Eladio
who returns. And the
family that he left will
not be the same family
that he will find on his
return. First of all, he
will find that his
children are very
mature, that they have
already decided on the
direction their lives
are taking," she said.
Sergio, 30, is married
and holds a professional
job.
Carolina, four years
younger, has already set
the date for her
wedding, in April. A
prediction made by
Democratic U.S.
Representative William
Delahunt on a visit to
Bogotá in January is
about to come true:
"Your father will give
you away at your
wedding, you’ll see."
It was Carolina who
brought Delahunt and a
group of other U.S.
Democratic legislators,
who have been closely
following the hostage
talks, to Colombia.
The FARC are holding
around 40 hostages,
including former
legislators, soldiers,
three U.S. military
contractors, and former
presidential candidate
Ingrid Betancourt, in
jungle camps with the
aim of negotiating a
humanitarian swap of
hostages for some
400-500 imprisoned
insurgents.
Sergio was studying in
the United States and
Carolina in Canada, and
both were close to
graduating from
university when their
father was taken
hostage.
"They immediately
returned to Colombia,
and when they tried to
gain credit for their
studies, none of their
courses were recognised.
They had to start from
scratch. These kids have
really shown a great
deal of strength.
Because starting your
university studies over
in the middle of such a
crisis…," said Rodríguez.
Right after Pérez was
kidnapped, his alternate
claimed his seat in the
Senate.
Rodríguez had abandoned
her work as an antique
dealer just before the
regional economic crisis
broke out in the late
1990s, which in Colombia
hit this luxury sector
particularly hard.
All of a sudden, the
family found itself
without an income, and
Rodríguez had to pay off
the debts incurred by
her husband in the
recent election
campaign.
"I have dedicated the
past six years and seven
months entirely to
fighting for the release
of Luis and the rest of
the hostages. I was very
committed to the search
for a humanitarian
accord," said Rodríguez.
"I worked hard for a
humanitarian exchange,
along with my great
friend, (former)
president López," she
said, looking at a black
and white photo of
former Liberal Party
president Alfonso López
Michelsen (1974-1978),
which sits in a frame on
an upright piano in the
living room of her home
-- she moved into a
smaller apartment, that
her husband has never
seen.
As president, López did
not sign Protocols I and
II to the Geneva
Convention in 1977,
pertaining to civil
wars, and even tried to
block their approval, in
alliance with Chile and
Cambodia.
But before Colombia’s
new constitution was
approved in 1991, he
admitted his error, and
soon become a leading
defender of
international
humanitarian law (IHL).
He also argued that
states have the
obligation to actively
protect their citizens,
including those held by
the enemy -- a position
that is backed by the
Office of the United
Nations High
Commissioner for Human
Rights.
"He forged the way for a
humanitarian agreement,"
said Rodríguez. "It was
he who began to talk
about IHL, about the
‘humanisation’ of the
conflict, and who began
to recognise the
conflict itself, in
order to start seeking
negotiations towards an
accord."
López did not believe
that respect for IHL
would lead to a peaceful
outcome in Colombia’s
decades-long armed
conflict. But he did see
it as an instrument that
would help alleviate the
pain caused by the war.
Colombia adhered to the
two Geneva Convention
protocols in 1992 and
1994, although none of
the armed groups
involved in the conflict
have fully respected
them.
After a reform of the
penal code that
stiffened sentences for
convicted guerrillas,
the FARC began to seize
and hold members of the
military and police
captured in combat.
President Uribe has not
acknowledged that there
is a civil war in
Colombia.
But the FARC considers
both the hostages and
the imprisoned
guerrillas as prisoners
of war.
For the hostages’
families, "that has been
one of the fiercest
battles," said Rodríguez,
because if the civilians
held by the rebels are
not "hostages seized by
a party in an armed
conflict, then where
does that leave them?"
"I have the impression
that the FARC are
recognising and
complying with IHL with
regard to (civilian)
hostages," she said,
adding that she believes
that the rebels "are
going to continue
handing them over to
President Hugo Chávez."
"There is no doubt that
negotiations of a
humanitarian accord will
be between combatants,
as IHL states," she
said.
"I believe it is very
important that we
continue to support the
rest of the families. It
is a moral duty on our
part to continue backing
efforts to achieve a
humanitarian accord and
the release of all of
the hostages. I feel
very committed to all of
those who are still in
captivity," she said.
At the same time as the
hostages were released
on Wednesday, the FARC
leadership issued a
statement saying their
unilateral release is an
achievement of Chávez
and Córdoba’s
"humanitarian
persistence and sincere
concern for peace in
Colombia."
The next step should be
"the withdrawal of the
military from (the
municipalities of)
Pradera and Florida for
45 days, in the presence
of the guerrillas, and
with the international
community as observers,"
in order to free the
rest of the hostages.
In Colombia, the rebel
group’s message was
interpreted as an end to
the unilateral release
of civilian hostages.
The FARC communiqué
warned of a "huge war
operation" in the region
-- involving 18,000
troops, according to
Venezuelan Interior
Minister Ramón Rodríguez
Chapín -- which could
still lead to a "fatal
outcome," attributable
to the government, if it
attempts a military
rescue, according to the
insurgents.
EXCHANGES AND RELEASES
In May 1997, the
government of Ernesto
Samper (1994-1998)
negotiated an agreement
with the FARC for a
30-day demilitarisation
of a 13,000 sq km area
in the municipality of
Cartagena del Chairá in
the southern province of
Caquetá, which led to
the unilateral release
of 70 members of the
military by the
guerrillas.
The first swap of
hostages for imprisoned
rebels took place in
June 2001, during the
government of Andrés
Pastrana (1998-2002), in
the context of peace
talks with the FARC in a
42,000 sq km zone in the
southern municipality of
Caguán. On that
occasion, 55 members of
the military and police
were exchanged for 14
imprisoned guerrillas.
After the swap, the
insurgents unilaterally
freed another 304
soldiers, only holding
in captivity officers
and non-commissioned
officers, several of
whom have now spent over
10 years in captivity.
And in March 2006, the
FARC unilaterally
released two police
officers.
For his part, Uribe
released from prison a
senior FARC member,
Rodrigo Granda, known as
the group’s "foreign
minister", at the urging
of French President
Nicolas Sarkozy last
June.
Under the argument that
it was drawing attention
to the question of the
civil war, in August
2000 the FARC began
taking civilian
hostages, which is
prohibited by IHL. The
first was then
congressman Óscar Tulio
Lizcano, who is still
being held by the
guerrillas.
The FARC have seized a
total of 24 civilian
hostages, 13 of whom
have died (at least two
were killed by their
captors, who have
standing orders to kill
them if the military
closes in on their
position), one --
Fernando Araújo -- who
escaped and is now
foreign minister, and
the six released this
year.
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