FARC releases two women in humanitarian gesture

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez publicly announced on Jan. 9 that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia had just sent him details of the location in their country where two women held by the FARC, Clara Rojas and Consuelo González de Perdomo, were to be released.

Immediately, Chávez, through Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro, requested from the Colombian government authorization to send helicopters marked with the Red Cross symbol to the area of Guaviare, in the heart of the jungle in the southeastern part of Colombia.

The Colombian government authorized the process. In the early morning of the following day, two Venezuelan helicopters landed in the southern part of Guaviare. It was an operation carried out under very strict guidelines. The pilots were informed of the exact landing point after takeoff.

For obvious reasons, the FARC had requested a cease-fire by the Colombian Army in a large area of the region. International pressure on the Colombian government helped make this demand a reality, for the only way that the two women could be released safely would be if there was no active Colombian military presence. The Army surrounded the area but could not operate from 6 a.m. through 6 p.m. by orders of Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

Release in the jungle

At 11 a.m., a humanitarian delegation—composed of Colombian Sen. Piedad Córdoba, Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela Germán Sánchez, members of the Red Cross, a physician and a Telesur correspondent from Venezuela—greeted Rojas and González, who emerged from the thick jungle accompanied by a guerrilla unit responsible for their safe delivery.

In an unedited video transmitted through VTV, the Venezuelan state television station, both women can be seen happy and in good physical condition. Immediately, Minister Rodríguez called Chávez through a satellite phone and both Rojas and González movingly expressed their appreciation for his intervention in the liberation. Chávez also spoke with the FARC member leading the unit.

On the video Rojas and González can be seen smiling and hugging and kissing the women guerrillas who accompanied them and shaking hands with the male guerrilla members.

The guerrilla group also gave Rodríguez Chacín “proofs of life”—photos and letters—from 16 other prisoners retained by the FARC, to be delivered to their relatives. Last month, when the FARC sent Chávez “proofs of life,” they were intercepted by the Uribe government and the messengers jailed. This time the messages were delivered directly to the Venezuelan envoy, guaranteeing they would go to their intended recipients, the relatives, and not to the Colombian and U.S. governments, as happened then.

The helicopters waited an hour before leaving for Venezuela, giving the guerrillas time to disappear in the jungle.

Details revealed by Rojas and González

Once in Caracas, after meeting their relatives following six years of captivity, Rojas and González gave ample interviews to the national and international press that clarified many facts.

Both women spoke of spending 20 days on a long and dangerous walk through the jungle to their liberation, accompanied by the FARC commandos. This exposed the lies of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who had stated on Dec. 31—the day they had originally been expected to be freed in Villavicencio, a town close to Bogotá—that the FARC were lying and had no intention of releasing the women.

Earlier, while in the aircraft that took them to Caracas, the two women had told Sen. Córdoba of their fears that the bombing and military operations of the Colombian Army could have prevented their freedom.

Rojas had been an aide during the presidential election campaign of candidate Ingrid Betancourt, also retained by the FARC. Rojas mentioned that sometime around Dec. 31 bombing had been heard close to their location in the jungle. Uribe had declared at the time that no military operations were taking place in that area.

A report in Indymedia Colombia under the heading “El mismo ejército contradice a Uribe” (The Army itself contradicts Uribe) carried a statement of the 4th Army Division dated Dec. 26, showing that there were military operations in the area.

Emmanuel’s situation

The third person to be part of the release was Rojas’ son Emmanuel, now three years old, who was born in the jungle after she had a love relationship with a guerrilla. The boy had been taken to a family trusted by the FARC when he was eight months old to be taken care of and given medical attention.

What happened after that is still not clear. A member of the family caring for him supposedly took him to a hospital, after which he was placed in an institution for abused children. Many reporters speculate that the Uribe government abducted him in order to sabotage the humanitarian exchange.

Uribe had accused the FARC of child abuse and neglect, stating that the guerrillas gave the boy to the institution.

Rojas, clarifying this, talked in detail about her emergency Caesarean section, performed by a guerrilla member in the jungle, and the boy’s subsequent illness with leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease. There were no medications for the baby so she decided “to get my boy out to save his life” and asked the guerrillas to take him for treatment. “I kept insisting,” Rojas said during an interview, “and you see, they finally listened, God listened.” Rojas visited her son after her release and steps are being taken for their permanent reunion.

Despite Uribe’s statements, the FARC had never claimed that the boy was in the jungle, only that he was going to be released. What happened proves once more the lies of the Colombian government and the transparency shown by the guerrillas.

In the latest development related to the exchange, Chávez called on governments to take the FARC off their list of terrorist organizations, stating that it is “an army that has a space and has a political program that is Bolivarian”—that is, a program that conforms to the ideals of Simón Bolívar, often referred to as the Great Liberator, who fought in the 19th century for the freedom and integration of all Latin America.