Betancourt's rescue renews unity in Colombia
Veronica Sardon | Saturday, 5 July 2008
The spectacular rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others held by Marxist rebels has deep implications for Colombia.
Even the region's leftist power house, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, had failed in the attempt to mediate Betancourt's release.
Conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe - a very popular figure in his own country - is reaping huge credit for the spectacular release his no-bargaining approach.
'The impeccable rescue of these 15 hostages who had been in the hands of FARC for long years is, without a doubt, the most welcome news in many, many years, in this country that is so affected by bad news,' the daily El Tiempo editorialized Thursday.
The operation not only generated street celebrations across Colombia, but it also healed the most visible wounds of the decades- long drama in which hundreds of people, including politicians and police officials, have been kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while the government seemed to stand helplessly by.
Uribe has been unrelenting in his policy of not giving in to rebel demands, particularly those for a demilitarized zone, even if it meant saying no to the hypothetical chance for a hostage swap.
This has persistently led him to clash with many in Colombia and beyond, from Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, to Chavez.
But Wednesday's daring rescue, a precision combination of intelligence and moxie, defused some of the tension.
'Mrs Yolanda doesn't love me ... Perhaps now I can conquer her heart a little,' Uribe joked in relieved laughter hours after Betancourt's release.
The joke summed up much of the day's significance.
The outspoken Pulecio - a former beauty queen turned legislator - travelled the world seeking alliances to persuade Uribe to do more to release of the hostages. Everywhere, she described the president as a hard-hearted man with little interest in the suffering of hostages and their relatives.
Pulecio and many others opposed Uribe's insistence on military operations, in the knowledge that rebels had orders to kill prisoners rather than have them rescued by force.
One anecdote showed just how much Uribe's political stature grew on Wednesday: Ingrid Betancourt told reporters that, in a first phone conversation, even before their physical reunion, the former presidential candidate asked her mother to call Uribe and thank him.
'The operation was perfect,' Betancourt stressed. 'Rescue was an option that was less bad than kidnapping.'
In this context, she thanked Uribe for having 'taken the risk to do it,' in the knowledge that he had not consulted her family and that her family would not have wanted him to carry out the plan.
The successful mission offers hope for a reconciliation within Colombian society, long united in their rejection of FARC but divided as to the means.
Betancourt was generous in her praise of both the president and the military.
'I ask Colombians to believe in our army that is going to lead us to peace,' she said.
But while the single 22-minute operation, albeit complex and risky, seemed to make the world and Betancourt's mother think that Uribe was right, the president himself reminded the country that other armed rescue attempts have gone wrong,
The operation - fit for a film, in the words of Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos - may have been meticulously prepared, but there was a risk.
Uribe knows that, and he also knows that while FARC have been deprived of their most high-profile hostage, Betancourt, hundreds of others remain in rebel hands.
Colombian military forces left some 60 rebels on the ground, without firing a shot. Uribe, who made another plea for FARC to come to the negotiating table, said this was a gesture of reconciliation that sought reciprocity in how FARC treats the hostages left behind.
Most importantly, the president called upon FARC to depose their weapons after a series of tough events have hit them hard.
In March, FARC lost their boss and founder Manuel Marulanda, to natural causes; number two Raul Reyes, killed in a controversial Colombian raid into Ecuador; and Ivan Rios, killed by a subordinate who cashed in on a reward.
El Tiempo wrote that the ball is now in FARC's court, and it must react.
'The country's joy over the liberation must definitively have shown them that the country unanimously rejects the horrific practice of kidnapping,' it wrote. 'In the face of this liberation, they must assume that the equation of war has changed irreversibly.'
FARC is visibly weakened - to the point that the commandos were able to infiltrate its leadership before the rescue - and has lost its most precious bargaining chip, Betancourt.
Much of the credit goes to Uribe, whose policy has delivered outstanding results.
However, this policy, or perhaps a new one adapted to deal with a weakened enemy, will continue to be needed in the search for the definitive goal of peace in Colombia.
Even the region's leftist power house, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, had failed in the attempt to mediate Betancourt's release.
Conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe - a very popular figure in his own country - is reaping huge credit for the spectacular release his no-bargaining approach.
'The impeccable rescue of these 15 hostages who had been in the hands of FARC for long years is, without a doubt, the most welcome news in many, many years, in this country that is so affected by bad news,' the daily El Tiempo editorialized Thursday.
The operation not only generated street celebrations across Colombia, but it also healed the most visible wounds of the decades- long drama in which hundreds of people, including politicians and police officials, have been kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while the government seemed to stand helplessly by.
Uribe has been unrelenting in his policy of not giving in to rebel demands, particularly those for a demilitarized zone, even if it meant saying no to the hypothetical chance for a hostage swap.
This has persistently led him to clash with many in Colombia and beyond, from Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, to Chavez.
But Wednesday's daring rescue, a precision combination of intelligence and moxie, defused some of the tension.
'Mrs Yolanda doesn't love me ... Perhaps now I can conquer her heart a little,' Uribe joked in relieved laughter hours after Betancourt's release.
The joke summed up much of the day's significance.
The outspoken Pulecio - a former beauty queen turned legislator - travelled the world seeking alliances to persuade Uribe to do more to release of the hostages. Everywhere, she described the president as a hard-hearted man with little interest in the suffering of hostages and their relatives.
Pulecio and many others opposed Uribe's insistence on military operations, in the knowledge that rebels had orders to kill prisoners rather than have them rescued by force.
One anecdote showed just how much Uribe's political stature grew on Wednesday: Ingrid Betancourt told reporters that, in a first phone conversation, even before their physical reunion, the former presidential candidate asked her mother to call Uribe and thank him.
'The operation was perfect,' Betancourt stressed. 'Rescue was an option that was less bad than kidnapping.'
In this context, she thanked Uribe for having 'taken the risk to do it,' in the knowledge that he had not consulted her family and that her family would not have wanted him to carry out the plan.
The successful mission offers hope for a reconciliation within Colombian society, long united in their rejection of FARC but divided as to the means.
Betancourt was generous in her praise of both the president and the military.
'I ask Colombians to believe in our army that is going to lead us to peace,' she said.
But while the single 22-minute operation, albeit complex and risky, seemed to make the world and Betancourt's mother think that Uribe was right, the president himself reminded the country that other armed rescue attempts have gone wrong,
The operation - fit for a film, in the words of Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos - may have been meticulously prepared, but there was a risk.
Uribe knows that, and he also knows that while FARC have been deprived of their most high-profile hostage, Betancourt, hundreds of others remain in rebel hands.
Colombian military forces left some 60 rebels on the ground, without firing a shot. Uribe, who made another plea for FARC to come to the negotiating table, said this was a gesture of reconciliation that sought reciprocity in how FARC treats the hostages left behind.
Most importantly, the president called upon FARC to depose their weapons after a series of tough events have hit them hard.
In March, FARC lost their boss and founder Manuel Marulanda, to natural causes; number two Raul Reyes, killed in a controversial Colombian raid into Ecuador; and Ivan Rios, killed by a subordinate who cashed in on a reward.
El Tiempo wrote that the ball is now in FARC's court, and it must react.
'The country's joy over the liberation must definitively have shown them that the country unanimously rejects the horrific practice of kidnapping,' it wrote. 'In the face of this liberation, they must assume that the equation of war has changed irreversibly.'
FARC is visibly weakened - to the point that the commandos were able to infiltrate its leadership before the rescue - and has lost its most precious bargaining chip, Betancourt.
Much of the credit goes to Uribe, whose policy has delivered outstanding results.
However, this policy, or perhaps a new one adapted to deal with a weakened enemy, will continue to be needed in the search for the definitive goal of peace in Colombia.