BREAKING: Ingrid Betancourt Released

BBC is now reporting:

The Colombian authorities say they have rescued Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans held by rebels in Colombia.

Ms Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician, has been held for more than six years by the rebel Farc group and is said to be in very poor health.

She is the group's highest-profile hostage and the French government has made securing her release a priority.

The Farc group has been fighting to overthrow the Colombian government for more than 40 years.

The Colombian military said some 15 hostages had been rescued in total on Wednesday, among them 11 Colombian soldiers.

Please join me in Colombia.

You'll recall that Betancourt was being held by FARC and that FARC refused to allow a French medical team to see her. You'll also recall that the French left the country without seeing her.

Now this good news.

The background, there's this diary:

Ingrid Betancourt, while campaigning for the presidency of Colombia, was kidnapped by FARC on February 23, 2002. More than six years later, she remains a hostage somewhere in Colombia. She suffers from hepatitis B and leishmaniasis, a skin disease caused by insect bites. She is also rumored to be losing the will to live. She is the public face of kidnapping in Colombia. She is the most famous of hundreds of hostages. Unlike most of the hostages, she has ties outside the country.

Ingrid Betancourt In Captivity in 2007

Ingrid Betancourt, while campaigning for the presidency of Colombia, was kidnapped by FARC on February 23, 2002. More than six years later, she remains a hostage somewhere in Colombia. She suffers from hepatitis B and leishmaniasis, a skin disease caused by insect bites. She is also rumored to be losing the will to live. She is the public face of kidnapping in Colombia. She is the most famous of hundreds of hostages. Unlike most of the hostages, she has ties outside the country.

Colombia has more kidnapping than any other country in the world. The Colombian Government itself estimates that someone is kidnapped every three hours. It estimates that every year 11 politicians are kidnapped. It does not estimate how many hostages there are at this moment, nor does it estimate how many disappearances or deaths there have been. Colombia, since 9/11, emphasizes that FARC is a "terrorist" organization. It does not discuss the human toll that Colombia’s US funded military, the billions in US aid for "counterinsurgency," the "war on drugs," and its many paramilitaries levy.

Colombia has a long, documented history of mass kidnapping and long term hostage holding. This apparently began in earnest with the rise of Pablo Escobar and Colombia’s emergence as the hemisphere’s dominant narco trafficker, and it was documented by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1997 News of a Kidnapping. As a New York Times review explained about those kidnappings:

The object of these kidnappings was plainly to pressure the Government of Colombia, keep it from dispatching Escobar and his fellow drug billionaires to the chains that awaited them in the north. In fact, the drug bosses, as fond of their families as anyone, had been on the receiving end of a few sequestrations themselves, carried out by rebel groups like the M-19. They had dealt with them by forming an organization called Death to Kidnappers and, by a series of ghastly murders and horrendous tortures, discouraged the practice on the part of their enemies. Nor did the dignity of the Colombian state prevent the police from employing extremely arbitrary, brutal and even fatal methods in their treatment of individuals associated with the cocaine industry. Indeed, the suspension of these methods was among Escobar's demands.

Put another way, the kidnappings Marquez wrote about a decade ago had a plainly discernible, short term, political purpose. Is the same true of Ingrid Betancourt? After more than 6 years, apparently it's not.

Details (4 pm EDT): The Telegraph reports:

Colombian officials said they had rescued Ms Betancourt, as well as three American military contractors and 11 Colombian police and soldiers hostages, from the Leftist rebels, who had held her prisoner in secret jungle camps since 2002.

Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian defence minister, says nobody was hurt in the operation in eastern Colombia, which saw Colombian army commandos capture rebels who were manning a security ring around the hostages.

They forced the rebels to persuade their comrades to turn over the captives, without any loss of life.

Mr Santos said all the former hostages were in reasonably good health.

And, of course, Betancourt's son is absolutely delighted:

The son of Colombian-French hostage Ingrid Betancourt says her release after six years of captivity is "if true, the most beautiful news of my life."

Colombia's defense minister says the country's military has rescued former presidential candidate Betancourt and 14 other hostages from leftist rebels.

Betancourt's son Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt said on France-Info radio Wednesday that he was "really surprised and happy" but he said he was waiting for more information about the release.

This is wonderful news for Betancourt and the 3 "contractors." And now, I also expect it to be played for all it's worth by McSame who today is in Colombia talking about how great the war on drugs and the proposed CAFTA is.

FARC Says No To Betancourt, France To Go Home

According to Bloomberg, FARC has now said that it will not allow France's medical mission to treat its most famous hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, whom it has held hostage for more than six years:

Colombia's biggest rebel group refused to allow a French-led medical mission to help former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a dual citizen held captive more than six years.

``The French medical mission isn't appropriate and much less so when it's not the result of an agreement,'' the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said in the statement posted today on the Web site of Venezuela's Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa.

The FARC said the French made no contact with them to negotiate sending doctors to help Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen who is suffering from hepatitis B, and reiterated its demand that the government pull troops from two towns in western Colombia to swap about 40 high-profile captives, including Betancourt, for 500 jailed guerrillas. The French mission will leave Colombia, Efe cited the French foreign ministry as saying.

``If President Uribe had withdrawn troops from Pradera and Florida for 45 days at the beginning of the year, Ingrid Betancourt, military officials and jailed guerrillas would have been freed,'' the FARC statement said.

The FARC statement is here (Bloomberg's link is wrong). And, obviously, freeing Betancourt and other hostages is something FARC also rejects.

Pardon me. This is barbarian. FARC has not given an adequate, humanitarian answer to concerns about Betancourt and its other hostages. Its denial of access shows that it persists in using civilian hostages in its attempts to further its political goals. That is disgraceful. It is simply a human rights violation.

Betancourt, and the hundreds of other, less well known hostages should be released. They should not be permitted to continue to be pawns in FARC's four decade long struggle with corrupt Colombian governments. Yes, the Colombian governments are awful. Yes, they are the US puppets in the region. But, FARC's refusal to permit the medical mission to reach Betancourt is inexcusable.

And what, you might wonder, is anyone in the US or Europe or anywhere else going to do about this? Answer: nothing. To the contrary, the US is going to reward Colombia. The US is going to give Colombia a free trade agreement even though it kills unionists, even though its paramilitaries participate in the cocaine industry, even though it has ceded huge amounts of land to FARC, even though it receives billions of dollars in "insurgency" aid, even though its "drug war" has impoverished peasants, even though it is powerless to control its own territory. And the EU? Nothing. And France? Its mission is finished:

``Keeping the medical mission in place is no longer justifiable,'' the French said in a statement released by the ministry, according to Efe.

This is simply disgraceful.

News Of A Kidnapping

Ingrid Betancourt In Captivity (11/30/07)

Ingrid Betancourt, while campaigning for the presidency of Colombia, was kidnapped by FARC on February 23, 2002. More than six years later, she remains a hostage somewhere in Colombia. She suffers from hepatitis B and leishmaniasis, a skin disease caused by insect bites. She is also rumored to be losing the will to live. She is the public face of kidnapping in Colombia. She is the most famous of hundreds of hostages. Unlike most of the hostages, she has ties outside the country.

Colombia has more kidnapping than any other country in the world. The Colombian Government itself estimates that someone is kidnapped every three hours. It estimates that every year 11 politicians are kidnapped. It does not estimate how many hostages there are at this moment, nor does it estimate how many disappearances or deaths there have been. Colombia, since 9/11, emphasizes that FARC is a “terrorist” organization. It does not discuss the human toll that Colombia’s US funded military, the billions in US aid for “counterinsurgency,” the “war on drugs,” and its many paramilitaries levy.

Colombia has a long, documented history of mass kidnapping and long term hostage holding. This apparently began in earnest with the rise of Pablo Escobar and Colombia’s emergence as the hemisphere’s dominant narco trafficker, and it was documented by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1997 News of a Kidnapping. As a New York Times review explained about those kidnappings:

The object of these kidnappings was plainly to pressure the Government of Colombia, keep it from dispatching Escobar and his fellow drug billionaires to the chains that awaited them in the north. In fact, the drug bosses, as fond of their families as anyone, had been on the receiving end of a few sequestrations themselves, carried out by rebel groups like the M-19. They had dealt with them by forming an organization called Death to Kidnappers and, by a series of ghastly murders and horrendous tortures, discouraged the practice on the part of their enemies. Nor did the dignity of the Colombian state prevent the police from employing extremely arbitrary, brutal and even fatal methods in their treatment of individuals associated with the cocaine industry. Indeed, the suspension of these methods was among Escobar's demands.

Put another way, the kidnappings Marquez wrote about a decade ago had a plainly discernible, short term, political purpose. Is the same true of Ingrid Betancourt? After more than 6 years, apparently it's not.

Last week, France sent a plane to Colombia so that a French medical team could treat Betancourt. Treatment for her conditions was said not to be otherwise available. The French team, however, is now stuck:

France said Saturday its medical mission to help French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt /snip will stay put in Bogota until the guerrillas give a response.

"We had to do something. Now we're waiting for news from FARC," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France 2 television channel /snip

The humanitarian mission, said Kouchner, "will stay put where it is," adding that the French government was "determined" to wait it out.

Put another way, FARC hasn’t indicated whether it will or will not allow Betancourt to be seen or treated or released. Evidently, nobody’s heard from FARC about this, or if they have, they’re just not talking about it.

The situation is complicated. According to AFP:

Oscar Lopez, Governor of Guaviare department, 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Bogota, where Betancourt and other hostages are believed to be held somewhere in a rebel jungle camp, said the guerrillas "have given no sign" of an impending release.

[FARC] reiterated Thursday in a statement that any hostage release would come "if there is an exchange of prisoners." FARC seeks to swap its most prominent hostages, including Betancourt, for 500 jailed comrades.

Bogota has agreed to suspend military operations against the FARC to allow the deployment of the humanitarian mission, and last week it even suggested it would release some jailed rebels if Betancourt and other hostages were freed.

But according to AP:

A French-led mission to free hostage Ingrid Betancourt in Colombia may fail because officials cannot find any rebels to talk to about her release. The insurgents are in hiding, their main contact with the outside world is dead and Interpol has an arrest notice out for a top guerrilla leader.

Further, according to AP, Hugo Chavez, who negotiated releases of hostages earlier this year, now says that he has no way to contact FARC:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who received rebel-held hostages earlier this year because of his previous efforts at mediation, says he now has no way of reaching the rebel group.

Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba, a Chavez collaborator who this year twice escorted a total of six hostages freed by the FARC into freedom, says she wants to help the French-led mission but lacks contacts.

"All I can say is, as soon as we have a chance to resume contact with someone ... we can work on this subject," she said Friday.

And so the French plane sits on the tarmac. Ingrid Betacourt remains in the selva. Hugo Chavez, according to AP says the problem is the pursuit of a FARC member, Ivan Marquez:

Chavez, the leftist president who negotiated earlier hostage releases by FARC, expressed a desire to help, but he said the United States and Colombia should first stop trying to catch Ivan Marquez, who is a member of the FARC's ruling secretariat.

"We have information which indicates that agents from governments of Colombia and the United States are hunting Ivan Marquez," Chavez said in Caracas late Thursday. He suggested the United States is using "very advanced technology ... they have satellites and so on."

And the U.S. says it doesn't know what Chavez is talking about:

In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he did not know who Marquez is. Asked about Chavez's suggestion that U.S. actions could lead to progress toward the hostages' release, Casey said: "I'm not sure what he's referring to."

Put simply, Ingrid Betancourt and hundreds of other hostages languish because there is no effective diplomacy. Sadly, it's just not clear what can be done so that Betancourt and the other hostages will finally be released.