Colombia gets de-FARC’d (UPDATED)
Of course, by now everyone’s heard of the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt from FARC guerillas along with the US citizens Farc has been holding for more than five years. Venezuela’s El Universal has the background on the rescue;
The Colombian Army rescued safe and sound ex presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US citizens and 11 military officers held as hostages by the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), on Wednesday announced Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.
“They were rescued in an operation aimed at infiltrating the FARC first squad, the same that has held a large number of hostages for years. Through several procedures, we also could infiltrate the FARC Secretariat. Since hostages were divided into three groups, we managed to have them gathered at one single place and then moved to the south of the country, where they would supposed to report to (new FARC top leader) Alfonso Cano,” said Santos.
The minister added that arrangements were made so that the hostages were picked up in pre-established place by a helicopter belonging to a ghost organization and that a FARC leader known as César and another member of FARC Secretariat traveled together with the hostages to hand them over to Cano.
Santos said the freed hostages are flying in choppers to San José del Guaviare, capital city of the Guaviare region.
“This operation, called ‘Check,’ is unprecedented and a proof of Colombian military forces’ quality and professionalism,” pointed out Santos.
Actually, there must’ve been a mistranslation. According to their Spanish language article it was operation “Jack”
“Esta operación que se denominó ‘Jaque’, no tiene precedentes y pasará a la historia por su audacia y efectividad, dejando muy en alto la calidad y el profesionalismo de las Fuerzas Armadas colombianas”, señaló Santos.
McClatchy reports that John McCain had just finished a visit to Colombia moments before the rescue;
McCain, Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Lindsey Graham took turns praising Uribe, who’s raised a ruckus within Colombia’s political establishment during the past week by asking the country’s Congress to let him run for president an unprecedented third time.
Leftist critics of Uribe have said he’s trying to perpetuate himself in office like a “dictator.” Human rights groups have been saying for months that the president hasn’t placed enough priority on reducing atrocities against peasants committed by the military.
However, Colombians overall have given Uribe extraordinarily high ratings, with 70 percent saying they view him favorably.
Under Uribe, guerrillas in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are on the brink of defeat, major cities have become mostly safe for the first time in years and the economy has grown steadily.
The news just keeps getting better for Colombians.
Here’s Spanish-language video of the homecoming (h/t to my buddy Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective) ;
I’m betting there are some angry screams coming from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.
More links at Venezuela news and Views.
Of course, the Left thinks there’s some kind of conspiracy going on because McCain just happened to be in the same country. And suddenly Think Progress believes Fox News.
Next they’ll be saying McCain freed Betancourt and the Americans himself in a Chuck Norris/John Rambo style raid.
El Universal listed the former hostages names;
Ingrid Betancourt, Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, lieutenant Juan Carlos Bermeo, second lieutenant Raimundo Malagón, sergeant José Ricardo Marulanda, corporal William Pérez, sergeant Erasmo Romero, corporal José Miguel Arteaga, corporal Armando Florez, corporal Julio Buitrago (police), assistant superintendent Armando Castellanos (police), lieutenant Vainey Rodríguez and corporal John Jairo Durán (police).
UPDATED: 30 minutes ago Colombia’s El Tiempo posted this Spanish Language video of Betancourt’s first press conference;
“El helicóptero casi se cae porque saltamos, gritamos, lloramos nos abrazamos, no lo podiamos creer. Dios hizo este milagro. Esto es un milagro”
My Calle J translation;
The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we jumped, we screamed, we cried, we hugged, we couldn’t believe it. God made this miracle. It’s a miracle.
UPDATED AGAIN: More news and links at Fausta’s Blog.
Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, John McCain/Sarah Palin, Terror War
Let’s get this all in perspective now; McCain, John McCain flies in, sets up a deal, the troops are alerted, and the operation is done. All in a day? Cooooool, really cool for a guy that the left says is too old to move fast. At that rate, he could end wars in 5, maybe 6 days, eh? Sounds like a good reason to vote for him.
nuf sed
My, how things have changed in Colombia since Alvaro Uribe became president – he has completely turned that country around. Before he took office, Colombia had to be the most worrisome country in Latin America, but no more. Upon hearing this news, one is initially surprised, but in truth, this is exactly what we have come to expect from President Uribe. This is a man that could teach Barack Obama the real meaning of the term audacity. As far as the human rights groups are concerned – note that the overwhelming majority are either Leftists themselves or openly sympathetic to the FARC and ELN – their claims that Uribe isn’t doing enough to deal with the problems associated with the AUC and their allies in the military are both misleading and unfair. The president has been responsive to the human rights problems in the country, and his ongoing efforts to disarm the paramilitaries is proof of his sincerity. Not surprisingly, these human rights groups like to squawk about the Colombian military and the right-wing paramilitary organizations battling the FARC and ELN, but they hardly raise a peep when the FARC mortars a church full of women, children and elderly fleeing the FARC’s assaults on their villages. The FARC’s tactics aren’t that far removed from those of the Viet Cong and the Shining Path, but you’d never know this from the foreign and domestic human rights groups operating in Colombia. The freeing of the hostages is yet another piece of great news, not just for Colombia, but for the whole Western Hemisphere. In the last year, the FARC has witnessed the loss of its hostage trump cards, the killing of its leaders in their cross-border sanctuaries, 1900 KIA and nearly 4000 desertions. The foremost source of violence and instability in Latin America is on the ropes – they simply cannot continue to sustain these casualty rates. If you missed it, Mary Anastasia O’Grady had a great interview with Alvaro Uribe that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal – I hope someone in the McCain campaign has read it, because… Read more »
Excellent post.
John “Baby Hugo” Grant of “Veterans For Peace because we’re too ashamed to admit we’re Vietnam Veterans Against the War” has announced that he’ll be entering a 45 period of mourning startin midnight yesterday.