Via the BBC: Farc admit ‘hostage boy’ not held
Farc rebels in Colombia have confirmed a boy living in foster care in Bogota is the same three-year-old who was due to be part of a hostage release deal.
The rebels said Emmanuel Rojas had been transferred there for his own safety.
And that part about releasing him as part of a hostage release? Um, nevermind.
The BBC’s Jeremy McDermott say the admission is a big blow to the credibility of the Farc rebel movement.
Farc had said that the planned release had been called off because of Colombian army movements in the area where it was due to take place.
Indeed. And I guess “nevermind” about the army movements mucking up the hand-over as well.
I have been studying Colombia for a long time, and I have to say that this is one of the weirder episodes that I have seen. It is utterly bizarre that a leader within the FARC would make such a public promise to hand over someone not in the FARC’s custody.1
This blunder has handed Uribe a victory, embarrassed Hugo Chávez (a potential long-term ally) and damaged their credibility (such as it is) with the Colombian public.
The tragic part of all it, however, is that the situation is now worse for any hostage releases. And so the multi-year nightmare of so many will continue for the foreseeable future.
- Granted, the FARC is a cellular organization that often lacks good communication and coordination amongst the cells, but this was ridiculous. [↩]
January 6th, 2024 at 3:18 pm
Europe specially some organization like fighters+lovers must open their eyes and stop looking at the FARC as some robin hood kind of guerrilla, they lost their ideals a long time ago when they saw it was more profitable kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking.
Regarding the hostages they were going to release but did not blaming the government, we have to remember that FARC kidnaps over 500 people each year for ransom money and once this money is paid they return the person back to their family without any major complications so blaming the government for not being able to return these 2 political hostages to me is just one big excuse. This was one big show the FARC and Chavez were trying to put on to try to change the perspective most of the people have of them.
January 10th, 2024 at 6:43 am
[...] Based on nothing more than the history of interactions between the FARC and the Colombian government, I remain rather skeptical that anything will come of this. Still, the whole embarrassing episode with Emmanuel may be enough to motivate the FARC towards positive action. [...]
January 10th, 2024 at 6:43 am
[...] Based on nothing more than the history of interactions between the FARC and the Colombian government, I remain rather skeptical that anything will come of this. Still, the whole embarrassing episode with Emmanuel may be enough to motivate the FARC towards positive action. [...]