Hostages

Behind the release of the hostages by the FARC

Four members of Colombia’s armed forces were released on Sunday in Villavicencio and Alan Jara, former governor of Meta province who has been kidnapped for more than 7 years, is due to be freed today by the FARC. Thomas Sparrow, journalist at Semana International, is currently in that Colombian city and reports what has happened in the last few days.

Thomas Sparrow
3 de febrero de 2009

Villavicencio, a small city 80 kilometres southeast of Bogotá, is not normally on the main news. It is a loud, hot and sticky city, renowned more for being the gateway to the beautiful and unspoiled plains in the eastern part of the country. But it has lately been stormed by journalists, cameramen and photographers, it appears on the front pages of newspapers, on television programmes and has even had its name printed on the New York Times, the BBC and CNN.

The reason for all the attention in this city of 300,000 inhabitants is that it was chosen to be the place where five former kidnap victims of the FARC guerrilla group would land after being released somewhere in the Colombian jungle (a sixth hostage is due in Cali). That announcement had been made by the Marxist rebel group one month before and it had also declared that former politicians Alan Jara and Sigifredo López were included in the group of kidnap victims who would recover their freedom. The names of the other four hostages –members of the Armed Forces- were not revealed until the same day of the release.

That day was last Sunday, when the Brazilian helicopter –that country had offered days before to help with the release- was due at midday in the small Vanguardia airport in Villavicencio, which was packed with journalists, policemen and members of the Colombian government. Relatives of other kidnap victims were also there, like teacher Gustavo Moncayo, who has walked around Colombia to protest because his son, Pablo Emilio, has been kidnapped for more than ten years.

Finally, the aircraft did not arrive at midday but at seven o’clock, after all sorts of speculations including one from journalist Jorge Enrique Botero –member of Colombians For Peace, the organization led by opposition senator Piedad Córdoba, and on board the humanitarian aircraft-, who indicated that Colombian military airplanes had flown over the helicopter and had therefore jeopardized the whole process.

Those statements started a whole new series of problems, which, in fact, did put the release of the two politicians in a spot of trouble. President Alvaro Uribe announced late on Sunday evening that he did not authorize Piedad Córdoba and her movement to be part of the process any more, then relented early the following morning and only re-authorized the liberal party senator.

All that meant that the helicopter, which should have started off early in the morning was stalled until that political disagreement could be solved. That is the main reason that could explain why the humanitarian commission decided to postpone by one day the release of Alan Jara, former governor of Meta province(where Villavicencio is located), kidnapped in July 2001 when he was travelling near this city on a United Nations vehicle.
His wife, Claudia Rujeles, and son, 15 year-old Alan Felipe, were shocked by the news. “We felt very worried”, were Alan Felipe’s words, who has spent nearly half his life without his dad. And he had all the right to feel so, because instead of expecting his father’s return very soon, he was now waiting for a political problem to be solved.
 
Nevertheless, he decided to continue preparing how he will receive his father: he has asked to have some private time together, just the two of them, as soon as the former political leader arrives, and then he will take his father to buy a special present. He has written big posters with “welcome home” on them and he has even had time to have a cake ready. The house is also full of Christmas decoration, as they decided to postpone Christmas celebrations until the family is complete again.

In fact, the whole city is preparing for his arrival, even though it was postponed for a day. There are enormous signs and banners all around the Villavicencio welcoming Jara, who has spent most of his political career in this area of the country, there are houses with Colombian flags waving and hundreds of people have decided to wear T-Shirts with Jara’s face on them. Mass has also been celebrated on various occasions and even the mayor declared this week as one dedicated to peace. Hope is immense here in Villavicencio.

Fortunately for all of them and for the process, the political differences have been solved and, if everything turns out well, Alan Jara will be back home tomorrow afternoon, where he will be able to spend some time with his family and friends, who have been waiting for that happy moment for more than seven years.