Such Ungrateful Victims!

Not victims? FARC hostages in a jungle camp.

Let's get a few things straight:

Ingrid Betancourt and Clara Rojas  are responsible for getting themselves kidnapped for seven years by the FARC guerrillas.

Ingrid Betancourt while in FARC captivity,
enjoying the luxuries of the jungle.

And, Rojas and Betancourt should be grateful to the guerrillas for the wonderful treatment they received while being held for years in cages in the jungle.

And General Luis Mendieta, whom the FARC held in jungle captivity for twelve years far from his friends and family, should be ashamed for "crying like a woman" rather than 'behaving like a man' in captivity.

That, at least, appears to be the view of the FARC guerrillas towards their victims.

Betancourt and Rojas were the Green Party's presidential and vice presidential candidates when, in 2002, they ventured into guerrilla-dominated territory in southern Colombia. A foolish act, perhaps, but they had every right to be there, and the guerrillas had no right to kidnap them.

Clara Rojas with Emmanuel, who was born
while she was in captivity.

The sufferings of Betancourt and Rojas - who attempted to escape and were recaptured and punished, struggled with depression and, in Rojas's case, gave birth to a baby fathered by a guerrilla (which was taken away from her and ended up in a Bogotá orphanage) - became a national drama. The guerrillas released Rojas in 2007 and Betancourt was rescued, along with other hostages, by the military in 2008.

But the FARC were not done with Rojas and Betancourt. Last week, the guerrillas published a text on one of their websites

From the very beginning of the women's captivity, the FARC text makes clear, the women had no reason to complain. After all, "they were never tied up," which gave them the opportunity to make two escape attempts. How unreasonable of them, when they were treated so nicely. But, after their recapture, the women were "placed in prison."

In any case, the guerrillas provided their captives with dental service, hair care, an occasional movie and a library containing literature and guerrilla documents. Why, this was a veritable AirBNB in the jungle. The kidnappees had nothing to complain about!

The FARC kept many of their kidnappees
chained by the neck.

The guerrilla text makes clear that the heroes of the story were the guerrillas, who selflessly kept their prisoners alive and marching "in the rain, in the mud, under implacable sun and in the dark of night," not to mention the military's bombs and machine guns. And if the kidnappees complained, well, that was because they were elitists, accostumed to "certain comforts much greater than the majority of the people."

Despite all of these challenges, the heroic guerrillas still managed to feed their prisoners with yucca, carbohydrates, milk, oil and other stuff. Yet, despite all of these luxuries, the pampered Betancourt very unreasonably organized a hunger strike amongst the other prisoners.

Meanwhile, of course, the kidnappees were exposed to tropical diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and leishmaniasis, as well as diseases like diabetes, heart conditions and gastrointestinal ailments. But suffering from diseases while imprisoned in the jungle and exposed to military attacks was no reason to complain, either, because the guerrillas tried hard to supply their victims with "the necessary medicines."

During Rojas' pregnancy and childbirth, the guerrillas didn't know how to perform a Caesarean section, nor did they have adequate instruments. And, when Rojas - so unreasonably - became depressed and suicidal, it was only thanks to the guerrillas that mother and baby were saved. When Rojas had recovered somewhat, mother and baby were sent back to 'the prison.'

FARC kidnappees penned behind barbed wire in the jungle.

Soon after that, military attacks forced the guerrillas and their prisoners to march thru the jungle, carrying their supplies on their backs. The prisoners - unreasonable as always - went on strike again and refused to march. Betancourt pointed out that she had been living quite comfortably until the guerrillas kidnapped her and held her against her will. General Mendieta "cried like a woman."

Still, the forced marches continued, chopping their way thru the jungle and once even wading all day long thru chest-deep water, where leeches attacked them. Nevertheless, the ungrateful prisoners did not appreciate the courage of the guerrillas who were saving them.

Despite all of this guerrilla kindness, concludes Diana, the guerrilla who wrote the text, Rojas now argues that she was a victim of the FARC - whereas all they wanted to do was to help her.

Rojas "presents herself as our victim. With my hand on my heart, I can tell her that she doesn't have that right."

And the guerrillas' care for their hostages was not exactly altruistic or humanistic. For the guerrillas, the hostages are booty, bargaining chips, tools for extortion, sources or ransom and human shields. They protected them not out of concern for the kidnappees' lives, but to exploit them. The best proof of that is the guerrillas' policy of killing hostages when they feared they'd be rescued - a policy which they murderously put into practice several times.

A few days after 'Is Clara Rojas a Victim of the FARC?' appeared, the FARC leaders seemed to disclaim it - but left it on their FARC-Peace website - in both Spanish and English.

The FARC and the Colombian government are now holding peace negotiations in Havana, Cuba and compensation for victims of the 50-year conflict is one of the outstanding issues.

The FARC's twisted, cynical attitude toward their kidnap victims (whom they label 'prisoners of war') is a clue to their likely attitude towards all their millions of victims when the time comes to make compensation. The victims - the guerrillas will most likely claim - are responsible for their own sufferings, and any complaints they make are only proof of their own weaknesses. The guerrillas, for their own part, were their victims' heroic protectors, according to the guerrilla worldview. This week, victims of the armed conflict are in Havana, Cuba talking with the FARC. I'd like to hear the guerrillas' explanations of how displaced people are at fault for building their houses in the guerrillas' path, and child soldiers are responsible for being recruited for being too young and healthy.

With that concept of good and evil, the millions of people who have been raped, kidnapped, driven off of their land, massacred and forcibly recruited by the FARC stand little chance of compensation, or even an apology, from the guerrillas.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Does Kidnapping Continue?

The FARC guerrillas, who are in preliminary peace talks with Colombia's government, say that they have freed all of those they've kidnapped. But these people, who were protesting today on Plaza Bolivar, don't believe them. 

Pais Libre, an anti-kidnapping organization funded by the Colombian government, also says that the guerrillas continue holding more than 400 hostages.

In addition to the allegations of continued hostage holding, according to news reports the guerrillas continue recruiting children to turn them into child soldiers, in violation of all sorts of human rights.

The faces of kidnappees. 

Ringing the bell of freedom for hostages.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is the FARC Reforming?

Freedom coming? Guerrilla hostages in a jungle pen. 

 The FARC guerrillas' statement yesterday that they'd stop kidnapping civilians and release the ten soldiers and police officers they are holding in the jungles is either a landmark moment in Colombia's armed conflict or a cynical maneuver by a weakened guerrilla force.


El Tiempo newspaper opines that Colombians should wait and see whether the guerrillas actually fulfill their new vow. They're right.

It's hard to see the guerrillas truly giving up what is one of their most powerful tools for making headlines and extorting labor, resources and money from Colombian civilians. That's because behind the 'vacuna' which many ranchers and businesses in rural and small town Colombia pay to the guerrillas lies the threat of kidnapping. If that threat really disappeared, one of the guerrillas' big revenue streams could dry up.

A recent protest against the FARC guerrillas. 

Even the meaning of kidnapping is malleable in the FARC's world. I once interviewed a young woman who had been taken out of her apartment, together with her father, and held for several years in the jungle, until their relatives paid a ransom. Was that kidnapping? I expect the guerrillas would call it 'paying a war tax.' I once met a radio repairman who'd been forced by guerrilla threats to help them for weeks by building and repairing - unpaid - their jungle radio equipment. Was that kidnapping? I bet the guerrillas would call it 'collaboration.' I also met a woman whose sons had been carried away by the guerrillas to make them fighters. She had no idea whether they were alive or dead. Was that kidnapping? I'm sure that the guerrillas would call it 'recruitment.'

Still, the guerrillas' promise to end kidnapping of civilians and to free more kidnappees is a hopeful sign, if only because it seems to indicate an openness to making concessions in order to open dialogue with the government. But only time will tell whether or not this is a sincere step forward by a group which has caused tremendous damage to Colombia and its people.

FARC hostages, chained by the neck. 

The guerrillas' renunciation of what has historically been an important source of income for them might even be a negative sign if it means that they are earning so much from the cocaine business that they no longer require extortion and kidnapping income.

In any case, nobody should conclude from the guerrillas' renunciation of kidnapping that they have become a humane organization. Kidnapping is only one of the FARC's many human rights violations, which also include planting landmines, recruiting children, driving peasants from their homes and acts which can only be called terrorism, like the recent bombing in the small Pacific coast city of Tumaco. That bomb killed mostly poor, Afro-Colombian civilians - not exactly the country's traditional elite.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Lest they be Forgotten...

Universidad de la Sabana students with posters of kidnap victims who they have  'adopted.'

Over the past few days I've encountered two different demonstrations regarding kidnapping in Plaza Simón Bolívar.

Kidnapping is a long-running nightmare for Colombians. The nation's FARC and ELN guerrillas, as well as drug cartels and right wing groups, have long used kidnapping - and the threat of kidnapping - to generate revenue thru extortion and to try to pressure the  government for political concessions.

Caged guerrilla hostages. 

For years, Colombia was the unfortunate world leader in kidnappings, until the administration of Pres. Alvaro Uribe drove the guerrillas out of the country's main cities and away from its highways, and kidnappings dropped dramatically. In July 2008 the Colombian military tricked the FARC into releasing 15 high-profile hostages, include presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three United States contractors and police and soldiers. With those releases, kidnapping dropped out of the public's awareness. But that was a rare victory. In other rescue attempts, the guerrillas have massacred their hostages when they saw soldiers approaching. And hundreds of people remain in captivity, and according to Pais Libre the number of reported kidnapping soared 32% in 2010, to 282, from 212 in 2009. And those are only the reported kidnappings - many victims' families keep the crimes secret while they try to negotiate directly with the kidnappers.

A concentration camp? A FARC leader observes hostages in a cage in the jungle. 

Some kidnappees have been held for a decade by outlaw groups, confined in cages in the jungle while their children grow up, their wives remarry and their parents pass away. Kidnapping has become so institutionalized in Colombia that there are even all-night radio programs in which people broadcast messages of hope and encouragement to relatives who they hope are listening somewhere in the jungle.

And what's the point of all this suffering? The guerrillas' agenda, even if you believe in it, is lost. 

Universidad de la Sabana students on Plaza Bolívar with placards showing kidnappees they've 'adopted.'

This weekend I saw these students from the conservative and expensive Universidad de la Sabana, who are 'adopting' kidnap victims, as a way of demonstrating to their families, and hopefully, to the victims themselves, that they are not forgotten. The U. of the Sabana students' families are the kind of people who for many years feared kidnapping by the guerrillas and other outlaw groups, and who are now grateful to the country's law-and-order administrations.

Humanitarian Accord Now! 

Today, proponents of the proposed Humanitarian Accord, in which the guerrillas would release their hostages in exchange for the freeing of imprisoned guerrillas, held their monthly demonstration. But both the Uribe and the Santos administrations have opposed the idea, saying that it would constitute giving in to the guerrillas' demands, and that the freed guerrillas would return to fighting and kidnapping. I've found that many of the acuerdo's supporters sympathize with the guerrillas, who also support the idea.

In the end, the only people who can end kidnapping are the kidnappers.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours