Five years on, Colombian symbol of kidnap nightmare
Source: Reuters
(Adds details on government authorizing contact for families) By Patrick Markey BOGOTA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Five years after she was kidnapped by guerrillas, former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt has become an international symbol of the suffering of hostages still held in rebel camps. Photographs and posters of the dual French-Colombian national have appeared in both countries as politicians in Bogota and Paris push for her release by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Violence from Colombia's 40-year conflict has ebbed during President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed security crackdown but families of kidnap victims like Betancourt fear his hard-line policies leave little hope their relatives will be freed. "He should pay attention, be more considerate and accept a meeting with the guerrillas," Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, told Reuters in Bogota. "Ingrid is caught up in this absurd war even though she wanted to do so much for Colombia." Betancourt is among 61 hostages the FARC wants to exchange for jailed rebel commanders as an initial step toward peace talks, as are three U.S. contract workers captured while on a drug eradication mission in 2003. Protesters and relatives held a mass and took to Bogota's streets on Friday carrying pictures of Betancourt and signs reading "No to Rescue through blood and fire" -- a reference to Uribe's call for the military to rescue the hostages. In a surprise move, Uribe late on Friday authorized Lucy de Gechen, the wife of a senator kidnapped five years ago, to reach out directly to guerrillas in an effort to open negotiations over the release of hostages. Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched FARC kidnap bid 20 years ago, had appeared more flexible since his landslide re-election victory in August. Colombians praise his tough policies, but want him to resolve the kidnap crisis. But a series of attacks blamed on the FARC at the end of last year scuttled moves toward negotiations, and Uribe had this week called for the military to intensify its hunt for rebels and rescue hostages by force. NINE LONG YEARS An estimated 3,170 kidnap victims are held by the FARC, the National Liberation Army, the second largest rebel group, and common criminals, according to government figures. The FARC, which began as a peasant army fighting for land reform in the 1960s but is now enmeshed in the cocaine trade, uses kidnappings for ransom and to gain political leverage. It has held dozens of police, soldiers and politicians for as long as nine years. Betancourt, 45, was an independent presidential candidate when she and her vice presidential hopeful, Carla Rojas, were seized on Feb. 23, 2002, while traveling in remote Caqueta province. She was last heard from in a video the rebels released in August 2003. The three U.S. contractors were captured after their light aircraft crashed in the jungle during a drug eradication mission. A photograph of the three -- Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell -- is in the entrance hall of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. Pulecio tries to call a local radio station each morning with a message for her daughter, hoping she can hear updates on her children and other relatives and political developments in Colombia.
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