COLOMBIA:
Betancourt Freed in
Military Intelligence
Operation
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA, (IPS) -
Former Colombian
presidential candidate
Ingrid Betancourt, three
U.S. military
contractors and 11
Colombian police
officers and soldiers
held hostage by the
guerrillas were rescued
Wednesday in a military
intelligence operation.
They were held for
between five and 10
years by the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC),
which hoped to exchange
them for imprisoned
guerrillas.
In addition to
Betancourt, who has dual
French and Colombian
nationality, the
released hostages were
Keith Stansell, Thomas
Howes and Marc Gonsalves
of the United States,
and Colombian army
officers and
noncommissioned officers
Juan Carlos Bermeo,
Raimundo Malagón, José
Ricardo Marulanda,
William Pérez, Erasmo
Romero, José Miguel
Arteaga and Armando
Flórez.
Also rescued were police
officers Julio Buitrago,
Armando Castellanos,
Vaney Rodríguez and John
Jairo Durán.
On streets and highways
throughout Colombia,
cars, trucks and buses
sounded their horns in
celebration.
Dressed in a camouflage
jacket, rubber boots and
black sports pants, and
holding a wooden rosary
tightly in her left
hand, Ingrid Betancourt
landed at 17:10 local
time at the Catam de
Bogotá military airport,
and hugged her mother
Yolanda Pulecio and her
husband Juan Carlos
Lecompte.
Betancourt was escorted
by Defence Minister Juan
Manuel Santos as she
disembarked from the air
force plane that brought
her from the southern
Guaviare province.
"This unprecedented
operation was a global
first," said Santos at
the start of the press
conference. "It was a
movie-style rescue that
freed 15 people who had
been tortured and had
suffered for years."
"Comrades of ours,
serving in the army or
the national police,
have been held hostage
for nearly 11 years,"
said armed forces
commander General Freddy
Padilla.
They were "captured but
never forgotten. It has
been an obsession, a
commitment, to bring
these people back safe
and sound," the general
said.
He stated that on a
number of opportunities
the hostages could have
been rescued, "and they
weren’t." Instead, they
waited for an operation
that would free them
"without firing a single
shot, and get them out
absolutely safe and
sound, without a
scratch."
Betancourt expressed her
thanks "to God first of
all, and secondly to all
of you, who felt
compassion for those of
us who had been
kidnapped, who refused
to believe that the only
solution was to sit and
wait," and then she
spoke briefly in French.
She thanked the world,
and "the army of my
country Colombia. Thank
you for the impeccable
operation, the operation
was perfect."
After remembering those
who died in previous
rescue attempts, the
former presidential
candidate said that
"this is such a
devastating blow for the
FARC that it is very
easy to say that they
are defeated."
Betancourt spoke of the
FARC’s shortages of food
and equipment over the
past year, indicating
serious logistical
problems. "They may be
in difficulties, at
least that is what we
saw."
She said that for years
she felt guilty about
having travelled to the
area where she was taken
hostage, just three days
after peace talks had
broken off between the
government and the
guerrillas in February
2002, and about the
intense pain she had
caused her family. But
she added that she
"would do it all over
again," because she had
gone there to be with
her supporters. She had
been campaigning in an
area under guerrilla
control.
"I’ve earned a PhD on
the FARC, which I hope
will be useful for those
of us who want to help
solve this," she said in
reference to Colombia’s
armed conflict.
One of the most
devastating blows
against the FARC was the
constitutional amendment
allowing presidents to
be reelected to a second
consecutive term,
Betancourt said at the
Bogotá military airport.
The rebel group, which
was founded in 1964, was
banking on a change of
policy from war to peace
talks and back again,
every four years.
When Uribe was
reelected, they got no
respite. Although she
did not agree with
everything Uribe has
done, she said
reelection has been a
good thing for Colombia,
and that he "has been a
very good president."
"Thank God" that Uribe
became president rather
than her, Betancourt
said, adding that she
"wants to be just
another Colombian
soldier at the service
of her country."
Betancourt said that the
mediation efforts made
by Presidents Hugo
Chávez of Venezuela and
Rafael Correa of Ecuador
were "very important,"
and described them as
"allies," but added that
such mediation should be
conditioned by respect
for Colombian democracy,
as Colombians "elected
Uribe, not the FARC."
When the national news
agency Colprensa asked
Betancourt about the
effect on the FARC of
the death from natural
causes in March of its
historic commander
Manuel Marulanda, the
defence ninister took
the microphone and
answered himself
instead.
He gave a rundown of the
deaths of top FARC
leaders over the past
year, and the increased
number of desertions
according to official
figures, and repeated
the offer of a "generous
hand" for making peace.
Otherwise, he said, the
"military hand" would be
all they would get.
"We want peace by hook
or by crook, and peace
will come to Colombia,"
Santos said.
At the time of the
televised broadcast of
Betancourt’s first press
conference after nearly
six and a half years in
captivity, the streets
of the Colombian capital
were deserted.
But her first
declarations as a free
woman were not made in
Catam, to reporters from
around the world, but
earlier on, to the armed
forces radio, often the
only station received in
the remote jungle areas
held by the guerrillas.
In that first interview,
she told the story of
her rescue by a military
intelligence operation
disguised as a
humanitarian mission.
The operation took place
a week after a visit by
European emissaries, who
have spent years working
for negotiations with
the FARC, with the
blessing of the
Colombian government.
Minister Santos made the
announcement at 14:00
local time (19:00 GMT),
saying that army agents
had infiltrated the
insurgents guarding the
hostages in the jungles
of Guaviare.
According to Santos, the
operation codenamed "Jaque"
(Check, as in chess)
involved infiltrating
the hostages’ guards,
led by "Cesar".
"The hostages were
divided into three
groups, so the
guerrillas were
persuaded to bring them
all together at a point
where they would
supposedly be
transported to the south
of the country to be
under the direct orders
of Alfonso Cano," the
rebels’ top leader,
Santos said.
"It was arranged that
the hostages would be
picked up at a
predetermined site by
helicopters belonging to
a non-existent
humanitarian
organisation, and for
Cesar himself and
another member of his
staff to travel with the
captives to personally
hand them over to
Alfonso Cano," he said.
"But the helicopters,
which were really army
aircraft," picked up the
hostages and took them
to San José, the capital
of Guaviare, he said.
The U.S. government,
which funds the
Colombian government’s
counterinsurgency
efforts, was quick to
say that it had nothing
to do with the military
rescue operation.
The guerrillas "should
understand that they are
out of manoeuvering
room," said former
Senator Luis Eladio
Pérez, a hostage held
for nearly seven years
before he was released
unilaterally by the FARC
in February, thanks to
the mediation of Chávez
and Colombian opposition
Senator Piedad Córdoba.
"I was with all 15
(hostages rescued
Wednesday) for the past
four years, so I am
extremely happy that
they have all been set
free," Pérez said.
"But we demand the
release of our
companions who have been
left behind. We cannot
rejoice over military
successes" until they
are all free, he said,
referring to another 30
people still in
captivity.
Claudia Rugeles, the
wife of Alan Jara,
former governor of the
central province of
Meta, who is still being
held by the FARC,
expressed "happiness in
my home and in my
heart," but also concern
"for those who are still
in the jungle. May God
protect them so that at
some point they may
return alive."
Jara was seized from a
United Nations van in
Meta in July 2001.
Patricia Nieto, the wife
of the only regional
lawmaker who survived a
mysterious shootout
between the FARC and an
unidentified military
force in June 2007, in
which 11 of his
fellow-congressmen from
the western province of
Valle del Cauca were
slain, expressed fear
because "military rescue
attempts are not always
successful."
Pérez proposed that the
guerrillas should be
allowed to "reenter
civilian life by means
of a political party,"
an avenue that was tried
in the 1980s and ended
in the wholesale
slaughter of the members
of the leftwing
Patriotic Union.
"This is a sensational
opportunity; their
freedom can lead us to a
better future," chimed
in conservative
politician and former
minister Álvaro Leyva,
who has had the most
contact with the FARC
since the failed peace
process of the 1980s.
"It’s excellent news and
very heart-warming,"
said Leyva, an official
mediator in the search
for a humanitarian
prisoners for hostages
swap. "It was a major
intelligence coup, which
brought about the
release of hostages
without bloodshed, and
will, I think, revive a
host of initiatives."
"We must listen to
Ingrid Betancourt, and
see what she proposes
after all the
celebration, because we
must find a solution" to
the longstanding armed
conflict in Colombia, he
said.
"While it is true that
this military rescue
operation has generated
a great deal of joy, it
must be seen in
historical perspective.
Solutions are needed for
everything that’s going
on in Colombia," said
Leyva, referring to the
guerrilla war, the
far-right paramilitaries
and the distortions they
produce in the
institutions of power.
The Committee for Ingrid
Betancourt in France
stressed that it would
not rest until all those
who are still captive
are freed.
This is an opportunity
to "steer the country
towards a happier path,
which implies reaching a
real peace and turning
over the page" on this
war, Leyva said.
"We are very glad," said
Carlos Lozano, the other
official national
mediator for hostage
talks and the editor of
the Communist weekly Voz.
"We have to think of
those who were left
behind," he added. In
spite of the military
success, which
fortunately shed no
blood as has happened in
previous armed rescue
attempts, "peaceful
solutions must not be
ruled out, including
humanitarian exchange."
"The most civilised
solution is negotiation.
Given the defeat
suffered by the FARC in
the present case, they
should open themselves
to common sense,
realism, and solutions
consistent with
humanity, which is the
most important thing,"
said Lozano.
Marleny Orjuela, the
head of Asfamipaz, an
association of families
of military and police
personnel presently or
formerly in the hands of
the guerrillas,
concurred. |
|
|
|
|
|
