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Bogotá (ICRC) – Yesterday, 23 July, in a rural area of Vigía del Fuerte, Antioquia department, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) received eight civilians who had been held by the FARC-EP since 17 July 2008. The operation was the outcome of a strictly confidential dialogue between the parties concerned and the ICRC’s neutral and independent humanitarian action. The civilians were released following a request made by the FARC to the ICRC. The ICRC will continue to support efforts to find means of obtaining the release of other hostages and detainees in the hands of armed groups....

What nice things oil buys.

In any partnership, the coin of the realm is trust and responsibility - in other words, saying what you mean and doing what you say. In the dramatic rescue on July 2 of 15 hostages, including three Americans, held captive for many years by guerrillas and terrorists, deep in the Colombian jungles, we saw a powerful reminder that the United States has no better partner in South America than the government and people of Colombia. Colombia's leaders, especially President Uribe, had promised us that our three abducted citizens would be treated no differently than the many Colombian men and women...

At least 80 people were injured during a bullfight in Colombia when stands in an overcrowded stadium collapsed underneath the crowd. Some 500 spectators screamed in panic and scrambled for safety as, following the collapse, the bull charged towards crowds at the stadium in Planadas, in the south of the country. Two men dressed as clowns tried to distract the bull and tempt it away from the mass of people before others joined them in trying to pin it down. The dramatic events at the annual fiesta were caught live on television and an investigation into how it happened has...

President Bush honored Columbian Independence Day in the East Room TranscriptPresident Bush traveled to Georgia to attend a Republican fundraiser Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Chevron Pipelines Attacked In Nigeria and Columbia; FARC May Be Responsible In Columbia Monday, July 07, 2008 In the ongoing matter of Chevron and Nigeria comes a report from UPI declaring that "Nigeria attack cripples Chevron". Moreover, the same report points a finger at militant groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). And while there's no recorded link between MEND and Chevron accuser Larry Bowoto, it seems the two have similar aims: to cripple Chevron's presence in the region, as well as that of Royal Dutch Shell. Consider this UPI report: Chevron Corp. has declared...

The Mossad secret was involved in the operation to free hostage Ingrid Betancourt from Colombian rebels, AFP quoted a Spanish newspaper as reporting on Sunday. Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, right, greets her daughter Melaine Delloye after Melanie arrived from France to a military base in Bogota. Photo: AP Slideshow: Pictures of the week According to the report, American and French secret services were also involved. "Mossad, the US, and French intelligence services worked for more than a year with the Colombian authorities to develop the plan," the story run by Vanguardia claimed, citing an Israeli secret service source. The Jerusalem...

Colombia's left-wing Farc rebels have kidnapped 10 people in the north-west of the country. Guerrillas forced a boat load of people travelling along the Atrato River in Choco province to the shore, before seizing the hostages. Kidnappings for ransom remain the main source of income for the Farc, along with drug trafficking. Earlier this month their best-known hostage, ex-presidential hopeful Ingrid Betancourt, was rescued by troops.

Former Colombian hostage Marc Gonsalves filed for divorce from his wife Alisa ''Shane'' Gonsalves Thursday in Key West. Gonsalves, a resident of Big Pine Key, was one of three Americans rescued from the jungles of Colombia on July 2 after being held captive for more than five years by FARC guerrillas. He returned to Big Pine Key on Saturday, flying into Marathon airport aboard a private plane. Gonsalves grew up in Connecticut. He and his wife have three teenage children: Joey, Cody and Destiny. Shane Gonsalves has declined all requests for interviews since her husband's rescue.

MEXICO CITY — The capture was worthy of an action thriller: elite Mexican troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of a mysterious submarine. The 33-foot vessel turned out to be crammed with parcels believed to contain cocaine, possibly tons. Its disheveled crew of four emerged in stocking feet and baggy shorts, saying they had shipped out from Colombia a week earlier under threat of death. Mexico's military confirmed Thursday that the men are Colombian but offered little new information...Capt. Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the Mexican navy, said authorities were hauling the "very well-constructed" vessel to shore...

Trade deals with Colombia, Korea, and Panama, all rife with political import, are stalled in Congress. In the meantime, some U.S. exports lag In its Decatur (Ill.) factory, Caterpillar (CAT) assembles a line of the heaviest-duty off-highway trucks, behemoths specialized for use in mining, quarry, and construction operations. One model, the $1.2 million, 163,089-lb. 777F truck, can hit a top speed of 40 mph even while carrying 100 tons of dirt, enough to fill 350 wheelbarrows. Caterpillar has seen a robust market in recent years for these monster trucks, but is worried that companies in other countries will start to...

President Rafael Correa rejected statements by ex-FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, who supported the attack by the Colombian Army on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory on March 1. In the letter, the Head of State said he was surprised by comments by Betancourt, who was rescued in an operation authorized by Álvaro Uribe. “We are surprised and deeply pained by these declarations that support and try to justify an illegitimate and illegal act, which has been recognized as such and rejected by every government in America” , said Correa in the letter sent to Betancourt, released yesterday by Carondelet. In...

Leave it to CNN to worry that the Colombian government committed a war crime in its recent rescue of FARC hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says one Red Cross symbol was used in a daring and successful hostage rescue mission that took place two weeks ago. What seems to be part of a red cross is seen on a bib worn by a man involved in the rescue in this official image. One of the rescuers was wearing the symbol on a bib, Uribe said Wednesday in a nationally televised announcement that was also carried on radio. He described the wearing of the symbol as a slip-up. Such a use of the Red Cross emblem could constitute...

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia misused the symbol of the Red Cross in this month's military rescue of politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other guerrilla-held hostages, the government said on Wednesday, admitting a possible violation of the rules of war. "We regret that this occurred," President Alvaro Uribe said in a speech following reports that the Red Cross emblem was displayed on a vest or T-shirt worn by a Colombian intelligence officer who took part in the rescue mission. Falsely portraying military personnel as Red Cross members is against the Geneva Conventions as it could put humanitarian workers at risk when...

Colombian military intelligence used the Red Cross emblem in a rescue operation in which leftist guerrillas were duped into handing over 15 hostages, according to unpublished photographs and video viewed by CNN. What seems to be part of a red cross is seen on a bib worn by a man involved in the rescue in this official image. Photographs of the Colombian military intelligence-led team that spearheaded the rescue, shown to CNN by a confidential military source, show one man wearing a bib with the Red Cross symbol. The military source said the three photos were taken moments before the...

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian military intelligence used the Red Cross emblem in a rescue operation in which leftist guerrillas were duped into handing over 15 hostages, according to unpublished photographs and video viewed by CNN. Photographs of the Colombian military intelligence-led team that spearheaded the rescue, shown to CNN by a confidential military source, show one man wearing a bib with the Red Cross symbol. The military source said the three photos were taken moments before the mission took off to persuade the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels to release the hostages to a supposed international aid group...

This month's spectacular rescue by Colombian commandos of 15 hostages cast an international spotlight on the miseries inflicted by the terrorist group responsible for the kidnappings, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Much of the FARC's strength is derived from its protection of an illicit narcotics trade which channels cocaine to North American communities. But the recent hostage rescue has also drawn attention to the real role played by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in using the FARC to destabilize the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, his regional archrival. During a previous commando raid in March, which killed...

Robin Meade talks to former hostages about being held captive by Colombian rebels.

The United Nations is reported to be considering ordering the return of the 60 recently freed hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to their captors because “their release was obtained through deceptive and dishonest means.” “The Colombian government agents misrepresented who they were and failed to carry out the agreed upon exchange,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. To carry out the rescue mission, Colombian security forces infiltrated FARC, posing as members who were ordered to transport the hostages as part of a trade for the release of imprisoned rebels. “If we let this go we run...

Great post at Protein Wisdom pointing out the contrast between the rhetoric of “domestic spying” and the reality of FISA–that tapped phones on international calls can save lives, stop terrorists, and rescue hostages: The stunning rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors owed its success not just to artful deception, but also to a five-year U.S.-Colombian operation that choked their captors’ ability to communicate. Known as “Alliance,” it began with a satellite phone call in 2003, just weeks after the Americans’ surveillance plane crashed in the southern Colombian jungle, according to U.S. and Colombian investigators and court documents....

It's Not Easy Being Hard Ingrid Betancourt's liberation is yet another vindication of much-reviled hard power. July 11, 2008 By Charles Krauthammer On the day the Colombian military freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other long-held hostages, the Italian parliament passed yet another resolution demanding her release. Europe had long ago adopted this French-Colombian politician as a cause celebre. France had made her an honorary citizen of Paris, passed numerous resolutions, and held many vigils. Unfortunately, karma does not easily cross the Atlantic. Betancourt languished for six years in cruel captivity until freed by a brilliant operation conducted by the Colombian...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, July 11, 2008 – Years of preparation by U.S. Army South, Brooke Army Medical Center, Northrop Grumman Corp. and family members finally came to fruition on the night of July 2 when three American civilian contractors set foot in San Antonio. Former hostage Marc Gonsalves hugs his daughter, Destiny, during July 7, 2008, at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, who were held captive for five and half years in a Colombian jungle, were escorted to Brooke Army...

On the day the Colombian military freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other long-held hostages, the Italian Parliament passed yet another resolution demanding her release. Europe had long ago adopted this French-Colombian politician as a cause célèbre. France had made her an honorary citizen of Paris, passed numerous resolutions and held many vigils. Unfortunately, karma does not easily cross the Atlantic. Betancourt languished for six years in cruel captivity until freed by a brilliant operation conducted by the Colombian military, intelligence agencies and special forces - an operation so well executed that the captors were overpowered without a shot being fired....

Quo Vadis TPA? by: Emily Miller, July 11, 2008 Congressional leadership resistance and election year politics are to blame for stalling the passage of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), said Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Christopher A. Padilla last week at the Heritage Foundation. The TPA, previously called the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, was signed by the U.S. and Colombia two years ago in November of 2006, yet it still awaits congressional approval needed for final passage. Padilla, frustrated with Congress’ inaction, points the finger at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for thwarting the TPA’s progress. The Bush administration...

On the day the Colombian military freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other long-held hostages, the Italian Parliament passed yet another resolution demanding her release. Europe had long ago adopted this French-Colombian politician as a cause celebre. France had made her an honorary citizen of Paris, passed numerous resolutions and held many vigils...

For months before a group of disguised Colombian soldiers carried out a daring rescue of three U.S. citizens and a prominent Colombian politician from a guerrilla camp, a team of U.S. Special Forces joined elite Colombian troops tracking the hostages across the jungle in the country's southern fringes. The U.S. team was supported by a vast intelligence-gathering operation based in the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, far to the north. There, a special 100-person unit made up of Special Forces planners, hostage negotiators and intelligence analysts worked to keep track of the hostages. They also awaited the moment when the rescue...

Last week’s daring rescue of 15 Colombian hostages held by the Marxist FARC has been universally hailed as a triumph of military strategy. But at least one group besides the gulled guerilla jailers looks diminished in its aftermath: Congressional Democrats. While Colombia’s military will rightly reap praise for the rescue, the operation was in no small measure an American achievement. In addition to U.S. satellite intelligence that pinpointed the FARC guerillas’ jungle location, Colombian security forces have benefited from $4 billion in American aid since 2002. For this assistance – so vital in last week’s events – Colombia does not...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter to his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez thanking him for the "tireless efforts that helped" release last week several hostages held by the Colombian guerrillas, including Ingrid Betancourt. "As we celebrate the release of Ingrid Betancourt and other 14 hostages, I thank you again for your tireless efforts that helped the hostages of Colombia to come back to freedom and the love of their beloved ones," said the French president, as quoted on Tuesday in a press release from the Venezuelan government. Early this year, Chávez welcome six hostages in Venezuela, who were unilaterally...

The biggest loser of last week's Hollywood-styled Colombian army rescue of 15 hostages in the hands of the FARC guerrillas, in addition to the rebels themselves, was Venezuela's narcissist-Leninist President Hugo Chavez. Judging from Chavez's own public statements and the contents of thousands of e-mails found in FARC laptop computers seized March 1 when Colombia's military raided a guerrilla camp inside Ecuador, Chavez was hoping to use the hostage crisis to become the ultimate power broker in the Colombian armed conflict and become South America's most powerful political leader. Chavez, as well as Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, had been openly...

TWO children and an adult have died after a Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed into their home. The US plane came down after reporting an engine fire, but all eight people on board survived. The three who died lived in a farmhouse that was struck by one of the plane's turbines, witnesses told local radio. The cargo plane was taking flowers from Bogota, Colombia, to Miami when it crashed shortly after take-off. The Boeing 747, owned by Michigan-based company Kalitta Air, fell on the rural home 20km west of Bogota. Colombia's civil aeronautics agency said: "As a result of the...

FORT SAM HOUSTON - In his first public remarks since he and two other American hostages were freed in Colombia, a US defense contractor on Monday branded their captors as terrorists and praised the Colombian army for a daring rescue. Keith Stansell, one of three US defense contractors freed on July 2 after five years as a rebel-held hostage in Colombia, holds his twin 5-year-old sons at a news conference at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, July 7, 2008. [Agencies] American defense contractor Marc Gonsalves appeared with fellow hostages Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes at a...

The recently freed Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt has urged an end to the Colombian government's "vocabulary of hate" against her former captors. Ms Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, was held hostage for six years by Marxist Farc rebels. But, while praising President Alvaro Uribe's work towards her release, she said it was time to end "extremist" language towards the Farc. Ms Betancourt is in Paris, where she flew after her release on Wednesday. "I think we have reached a point where we must change this radical, extremist vocabulary of hate of very strong words that intimately wound the human being,"...

Culture: One of the most positive side effects of Colombia's rescue of 15 hostages from FARC communist terrorists was in dispelling the myth of revolutionary Che Guevara as a romantic hero.Che, after all, was with the bad guys last week. The Colombian soldiers who freed the hostages wore Che T-shirts to convince the FARC they were fellow terrorists, and it actually worked. Within minutes, the hostages were handed over. "They were wearing Che Guevara shirts, and I thought: It's the FARC!" said former hostage Ingrid Betancourt. Her disappointment turned to joy when the disguised men announced, "We are the Colombian...

AS THE unmarked white helicopter descended into the jungle clearing, Ingrid Betancourt had no reason to believe that her six-year-long ordeal was nearly over. Looking at the crew, some wearing Che Guevara T-shirts, the captive politician reasoned this was just going to be another day as a pawn in the struggle between her tormentors from the Revolutionary Army of Columbia, better known as the Farc guerrilla group, and her country's government. Along with 13 other hostages, her hands were bound with white plastic cuffs as she was shepherded towards the waiting aircraft. Angry and upset, she refused a coat they...

BOGOTA, COLUMBIA - THE daring rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages will be made into a movie by a Colombian director, a Hollywood production company and RCN-TV, the television channel said on Sunday. 'They still have to choose a language for the script ... (and) whether the film will be shot in Colombia or France,' an RCN News said in a report. It said the film will be directed by Colombia's Simon Brand and produced 'jointly by a Hollywood production company and under RCN-Cine supervision.' The report did not say when the shooting might start. A former presidential...

Uribe should soften his tone with FARC: Betancourt Mon Jul 7, 2008 2:58pm EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe should soften his tone when dealing with the Marxist FARC guerrillas, freed hostage Ingrid Betancourt said on Monday, urging him to break with the language of "hatred". Betancourt was rescued last week after more than six years in the jungle as a captive of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in an operation that was widely seen as a vindication of Uribe's hardline stance against the guerrillas. The FARC is still holding hundreds of captives and Betancourt, who...

Gateway Pundit gives us this:SWAMP POLITICS—New information reveals that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was indirectly sending messages to the FARC. The Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is designated as a terrorist group by the US government. Speaker Pelosi was doing this while at the same time she refused to bring a free trade agreement with Colombia up for a vote in the US House. In fact, Pelosi took extraordinary steps to block this trade agreement with America’s closest ally in South America.Cordoba-Pelosi-McGovernColombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba (left) is currently under investigation by the Colombian attorney general for ties to...

It may have taken years for army intelligence to infiltrate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and it may have been tough to convincingly impersonate rebels. But what seems to have been a walk in the park was getting the FARC to believe that an NGO was providing resources to help it in the dirty work of ferrying captives to a new location.

As we learn more about the Colombian military's daring hostage rescue last week, one detail stands out: In tricking FARC rebels into putting the hostages aboard a helicopter, undercover special forces simply told the comandantes that the aircraft was being loaned to them by a fictitious nongovernmental organization sympathetic to their cause called the International Humanitarian Mission. It may have taken years for army intelligence to infiltrate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and it may have been tough to convincingly impersonate rebels. But what seems to have been a walk in the park was getting the FARC to believe...

Undercover Officers Got Acting Lessons; 'Crocodile Dundee' BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- New details have emerged about an important supporting role for the U.S. in Colombia's daring rescue of 15 hostages held by the country's Marxist guerrillas. One area where the Americans were directly involved: Giving Hollywood-style acting classes to the Colombian undercover military officers who duped the guerrillas into handing over the hostages. Preparation for the rescue mission, which freed three Americans and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, involved mounting a makeshift studio on an army base and drilling the undercover military officers in their acting roles, according to senior...

Excerpt - American spy planes carrying sophisticated jamming equipment blocked frantic attempts by a Colombian rebel commander to contact his superiors about last week's hostage handover, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. ~ snip ~

This video of the release of the 15 hostages, including 3 Americans, was taken by Colombian special forces on July 2, 2008.

The sensational rescue of 15 hostages from the grip of Latin America's largest rebel group has highlighted the diminished state of an organization that just six years ago threatened to overrun the Colombian government. Once fueled by Marxist ideology and awash in narcotics profits, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, now finds itself facing a more robust Colombian military led by a popular president. The group has suffered the deaths of top leaders, seen large-scale defections of supporters, and is being squeezed for the money it needs to sustain its operations. Now the FARC has lost its trophy...

Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting 'a reliable source'. The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army 'were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,' the radio's French-language channel said. Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million. The radio said its source was 'close to the events,...

War On Terror: A foreign country puts its men on the line to rescue American hostages and pulls off one of the greatest rescues in history. Might a little gratitude from Congress be in order?Not since the 1976 Israeli raid on Entebbe has a rescue of hostages held by terrorists ended so spectacularly. Wednesday's liberation by the Colombian army of three Northrop contractors and 12 others will go down as one of history's great strikes against terror. In the wake of the rescue, Democrats' caricature of Colombia as a night-haunted right-wing dictatorship, a la 1976 Guatemala, looks increasingly hollow. The...

Yesterday, Barack Obama’s camp released a statement trying to slam John McCain’s current trip to South America. It read: “Senator McCain’s trip to Mexico and Colombia just underscores his insistence on continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies that have left nearly 2.5 million more workers unemployed, including unfair trade deals that have been written by lobbyists.” Well, the crusty old warhorse may be gaining on Mr. International in the global community, after all. Contrary to what Obama wants you to believe, McCain got a healthy burst of support from Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe yesterday. Uribe, who’s made admirable progress on...

July 3, 2008 Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Colombian military intelligence managed to infiltrate the top hierarchy of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and arrange for a transfer of hostages purportedly to be handed over to Alfonso Cano, the rebel group's top leader. A government mole arranged for the hostages to be brought from three locations to one camp, then taken to a helicopter the FARC believed belonged to a friendly aid group that would take the hostages to Cano. Instead, the chopper was a military helicopter piloted by intelligence officers who whisked a total of 15 hostages...

You will REALLY enjoy this 2-minute clip. Great little short mini-documentary showing the release yesterday of the Colombian and American hostages who had been kidnapped years ago by pro-Communist, pro-Che Guevara FARC guerillas.The former Presidential Candidate, (female), lead hostage and one of the main speakers on the airport tarmac, profusely thanks the pro-US President Uribe, and then, rolling her eyes still in disbelief, says she was "amazed by the BRILLIANCE of the Army of Colombia" in their plan to seize the hostages, faking as if they were leftists rebels themselves.Another of the liberated, a man, shouts, LONG LIVE LIBERTY! and...

Americas: Colombia's rescue of 15 hostages from FARC is more than just good news. It signals that the surest path to victory is in fighting, not appeasing, terrorists. Colombia's path is now clear to end the scourge for good.was Magical Realism, the Colombian literary genre, come to life. First, America's most famous former prisoner of war flies to Colombia on Tuesday to stand by the country in its 45-year war against the communists. Then on Wednesday, Keith Stansell, Marc Goncalves and Thomas Howes are rescued after spending the past 6 1/2 years in jungle tiger cages. Flash back to 1980,...