Colombian Rebel Carries
4 Year Old Hostage to
Safety
A female Colombian rebel
who forged close bonds
with a 4-year-old
hostage deserted the
country's largest rebel
army and carried the boy
on a 24-hour jungle
journey home to his
family, authorities
said.
"Thank God he was well
looked after, because he
looks nice and chubby,"
said the boy's father,
whose face was
electronically obscured,
in an interview
broadcast by RCN.
The unidentified
guerrilla hiked through
the jungle with Brian
Rincon Arias in her arms
to reach a military base
in the northeast border
town of Arauquita on
Tuesday, Gen. Jose
Joaquin Cortes, head of
the army's second
division, told local
media.
The child was kidnapped
in June from a nursery
school in the city of
Cucuta and was placed in
the care of the female
guerrilla, who was
identified only by her
nickname, "La Negra."
The Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, was demanding a
250,000 U.S. dollar
ransom for the child's
release, the daily
newspaper El Tiempo
reported.
The child appears to
have formed a strong
bond with his former
captor: images broadcast
by RCN network showed
the boy grabbing for her
hand and hugging her
minutes before being
reunited with his
parents.
A U.S.-backed
counter-guerrilla
offensive has pushed the
FARC farther into the
countryside and led to
the desertion of 2,707
rebels through the first
11 months — up 47
percent from desertions
during the same period
in 2006.
The FARC relies on
ransoms from kidnapping
and proceeds from the
cocaine trade to fund
its insurgency now in
its fifth decade.
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