Today, the Colombian government released a video captured from the guerrillas known as the FARC. In the video were images of some of the hostages guerrillas keep in jungle captivity. In kidnapping parlance, this is “proof of life” and used to continue ransom or other negotiations.
Three of them are Americans caught while working for the US as contractors. On February 12, 2003, the Cessna they were flying developed engine trouble and crash-landed in an area controlled by the FARC. At the time, the Americans were photographing the fields of coca plants, used to manufacture cocaine, that the US hoped to eliminate by spraying poison from crop-dusting-style airplanes.
When the guerrillas arrived on the site, they executed Thomas Janis and the Colombian guide, Luis Alcides Cruz. The three survivors were taken hostage and have remained in captivity to date.
This example reveals the other side of the coin of the US employing private companies in its military operations. The families have protested that the US has essentially written off the lives of these men and has not done enough through diplomacy to rescue them. At the same time, families fear a rescue attempt, which in an area dominated by guerrillas seems highly unlikely to succeed.
The fate of these men and the thousands of others kidnapped in Colombia also exposes the FARC as a group that does not respect basic rights. The most famous hostage, seized while campaigning for the Colombian presidency in 2002, is Ingrid Betancourt, who also appears in the video.
Married to a French citizen and a citizen of both France and Colombia, Betancourt’s case is a cause celebre in France. Recently, Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president, took the case up as part of his foreign policy.
Colombia’s continuing dust-up with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is, in part, related to his efforts to negotiate for a hostage release.
The images are of Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes.
The FARC should free all of its hostages and pledge not to deprive anyone else of their liberty. Regardless of your opinion of the US war on drugs — and believe me, I have a strong one — there is no defense to burying people alive, as the guerrillas, in effect, have done.