The Los Angeles Times caught up with Jo Rosano, the mother of Marc Gonsalves, in an article published today. Gonsalves, an American, has been a hostage of the Colombian guerrillas known as the FARC since February 2003 — almost five years now.
Since the guerrillas released two hostages last month, there is new hope that Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, captured after their plane crashed in sout
hern Colombia, might also be released. The Colombian authorities estimate that over 700 people are now kept in camps buried in the jungle.
The three worked for a contractor for the US Defense Department and were assessing the size of fields planted in coca, the plant used to make cocaine.
Rosano’s understanding of the conditions facing her son would give any mother nightmares:
Based on news reports, conversations with a former hostage who escaped, and messages sent to relatives from those still in captivity, Rosano knows this much: Her son sleeps in a hammock or makeshift bed, covered by a mosquito net and a tarpaulin, chained at the neck to other prisoners, amid a haze of horseflies, ants, wasps and spiders. Gonsalves survives on rice, beans and yuca, and suffers from hepatitis. Rigged explosives and camouflaged rebels carrying AK-47s surround the hostages, who are often forced to march for days through brush and wade through raging rivers.
Kidnapping is not only a crime, but a violation of the laws of war that should regulate Colombia’s conflict. But the guerrillas continue to kidnap, collecting ransoms from desperate families and using the hostages as political pawns.
Here;s hoping that 2008 brings relief for all of the families with loved ones cruelly held in Colombia.