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Ingrid Betancourt recounts Farc kidnapping

The World — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:50:02 +0000

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Ingrid Betancourt, who describes her time as a hostage in the Colombian jungle and comments on the challenges facing Colombia today. (Photo:Fabio Gismondi) Download MP3

Q&A with Ingrid Betancourt on whether writing her book was a healing exercise (1:00)

Bentancourt discusses former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and the current social challenges facing Colombia (2:20)

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MARCO WERMAN: Ingrid Betancourt was held hostage in the Colombian jungle for six and a half years. She was kidnapped in 2002 by the leftist guerrilla group known as the FARC. At the time, the dual Colombian-French citizen was a presidential candidate in Colombia. She and several other hostages were freed in a daring Army rescue in 2008. Ingrid Betancourt describes her captivity in a new book. She says that, while in the jungle, she was aware the pressure for her release was coming mainly from France. And that had some side-effects.

INGRID BETANCOURT: It created a kind of weird situation where I was feeling that Colombians didn’t care what had happened to me and I felt abandoned. And, even in the guerrillas, they were like looking at me and saying, oh, you’re not Colombian, you’re French, I mean. And that was very diminishing because it wasn’t said in a way that you could feel it was respectful. It was kind of the way of mocking me. And that was difficult in many aspects. Even with my fellow hostages, sometimes because they had this kind of position that every time the radio would, that the subject of hostages would be brought up, my name came, they were very resentful and they would just be sometimes aggressive. They would turn off the radio or they would say we don’t want to hear about you anymore. Or what do you think you are? Do you think you’re a princess because you’re on the radio? You’re not better than we are. And all those kind of things.

WERMAN: I was going to ask you, I mean some accounts of your time in captivity along with the other hostages describe you as arrogant and somehow above the other prisoners there. How do you respond to that?

BETANCOURT: Well, I think that was the reaction that some of my fellow hostages. But what I didn’t understand at the time is that for my fellow hostages, the fact that it was only my name on the stage, was offensive for them because we had been denied everything. And especially our identity. Some times the guards would want us to be called by numbers or they refer about us saying that we were the cargo, or the merchandise, or the objects. And this sensation of losing who you are, that triggered very deep problems in the psychology of many of my companions.

WERMAN: So, as such a high profile individual, did you ever steal yourself thinking I could never get killed here, I am Ingrid Betancourt. I was this presidential candidate. Or was the situation just so unpredictable that no interior monologue could comfort you?

BETANCOURT: It was impossible to say that because we knew that the guards had an order which was to kill us if there was an attempt to rescue us by the Colombian Army. And I had had this rough discussions with some of my guards in which, in one occasion I remember, we were marching and it was a girl and actually it was a guerrilla that I was sympathetic to. I mean she was kind, except for this moment when she transformed herself. She listened to some noise, she got scared, and she put the rifle on my chest and she said, now you have to run and if you don’t run, I’ll kill you. And so, of course, I run. But it was difficult for me to run because I had this heavy backpack. And then after the whole thing ended because the noise came from some animals that were just passing by, and actually she shot one, because we need meat and so she just turned into a hunter. But after that she explained to me, she said look Ingrid, if there are military after us and you don’t do exactly what I tell you, I will kill you. Because I’m not going to let them take you away. That’s the order I have. And to me it was something that it was very clear in my mind.

WERMAN: Just the fact that you survived in the jungle for six years is alone fascinating. What was the worst piece of bush meat that you had to eat while you were there?

BETANCOURT: Oh, my God. In literary sense or in [SOUNDS LIKE] sense?

WERMAN: Literally.

BETANCOURT: Oh, there were things I couldn’t eat. I refused to eat. For example, I remember we were [INDISCERNIBLE] to march, and the march was a complex situation because normally we would be starving. And at the end of one march, they killed some monkeys. And I was there when they killed the monkeys and for me eating a monkey was something I couldn’t do because I had had a very special relationship with a little monkey that they had captured and that I had tried to heal. And her name was Christina. And perhaps because of that, or perhaps because I thought they were so human in a way, I just couldn’t eat the monkey. But perhaps the worst was to eat snake.

WERMAN: Why?

BETANCOURT: Just because of the taste. It’s kind of a horrible taste. So, yeah. But there were good things. For example, eating crocodile was very good. The taste of the crocodile is like lobster. So it was something that I really went when they had those kind of things, I would just forget it was a crocodile. I would just indulge myself. But that was very exceptional because normally we would eat only rice and beans.

WERMAN: Ingrid Betancourt, you filed a demand against the Colombian government of some six million dollars. Is that demand still active?

BETANCOURT: No, it’s not active because it became a great scandal in Colombia and this wounded me in a very, let’s say, special way. What happened is that – well in Colombia there is this law that allows you as a victim of terrorism to ask the state for compensation and many of my fellow hostages did that. And so I decided to do it and once I did it, the government just made a huge scandal with it. They said I was attacking justice, the soldiers that had liberated me, and that was really unfair. And the way it was presented and the reaction of the people and this huge hatred that just popped up suddenly like if I was a criminal, and it’s difficult for me even now to talk about this because I just have strong feelings about this.

WERMAN: Will you run for president again, Miss Betancourt, of Colombia?

BETANCOURT: No, I’m not ready. I’m not ready to – I’m not ready to fight in Colombia for what I think we have to fight. I think there is a process, a maturing process in the society, that we have to just undertake. I hope that President Santos, which I know very well, he was my boss when I was working in the trade ministry. I know he’s a very capable person and very honest. And I just hope he’s going to make it possible for people like me to come back.

WERMAN: Where will you live until then? In France?

BETANCOURT: Well, actually I’m living in some luggage. I don’t have an address. I just, with my daughter in New York and with my son in Paris. And now that I’ve finished the book I think I have to find a place for me.

WERMAN: Ingrid Betancourt’s new book is called Even Silence Has an End. Thanks very much for speaking with us indeed.

BETANCOURT: Thank you, Marco. Thank you for having me.

WERMAN: There’s more from our interview with Ingrid Betancourt, including how tough it was to write her book, at TheWorld.org. This is PRI, Public Radio International.

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Colombian senator “collaborated” with FARC

The World — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:20:30 +0000

Colombian senator and peace activist Piedad Cordoba has been banned from public office for 18 years for “collaborating” with the FARC rebels. Senator Cordoba helped negotiate the release of several FARC hostages two years ago. But the inspector-general’s office said there was clear evidence she had exceeded her role as a mediator by giving the rebels political advice. Senator Cordoba says she is innocent and is preparing her response. From Bogota, John Otis reports. (Photo:Ricardo Bello) Download MP3

LISA MULLINS: Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba was nominated last year for a Nobel Peace Prize. That was for her work to help obtain the release of hostages held by the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Well, now Senator Cordoba is in trouble. Colombian investigators claim that she went too far in her dealings with the FARC, and turned into an active supporter of the guerrilla group. From Bogota, John Otis reports.

SPEAKING SPANISH

JOHN OTIS: A guerrilla commander turns over four hostages in a jungle ceremony broadcast on Colombian TV. After seven years in captivity, the prisoners were finally released in 2008 thanks in part to Piedad Cordoba, a left-wing senator and longtime peace activist. Cordoba, along with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, served for several months as an official mediator between the Colombian government and the guerrillas, who wanted to trade their prisoners for captured rebels. Cordoba helped persuade the guerrillas to unilaterally release more than a dozen hostages. One of them was Colombian politician Luis Eladio Perez.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: “We might have died in captivity,” Perez says. “What’s certain is that Cordoba and Chavez quickly secured our freedom after seven years in the jungle.” But now, Cordoba is the one in trouble. Late last month, Colombia’s Inspector General, Alejandro Ordonez, declared Cordoba had gone far beyond her role as a go-between.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: Ordonez said intercepted phone calls and e-mail messages between Cordoba and the FARC, indicate she collaborated with the guerrillas and advised them to take a tougher stand with the government. For example, Ordonez claimed Cordoba told the rebels not to turn over proof-of-life videos of the hostages and urged them to delay the release of the FARC’s most famous prisoner, Ingrid Betancourt.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: At a news conference, Cordoba said the liberation of so many hostages proves her work was strictly humanitarian. She also denied she is Teodora Bolivar, the alias she’s alleged to have used in the compromising e-mails with FARC commanders.

SPEAKING SPANISH

PIEDAD CORDOBA: I am Piedad Cordoba Ruiz. I’m a pacifist and a feminist. I am not Teodora Bolivar.

OTIS: Cordoba is among a growing list of Colombian peace activists, journalists and free-lance negotiators that the government’s accused of cozying up to the guerrillas. Government critics point out that in order to gain access to and make progress with hardline FARC commanders, people have to approach them in a friendly way.

DANIEL GARCIA-PENA: My conversations with FARC were always very, very tough.

OTIS: That’s Daniel Garcia-Pena, a former Colombian government negotiator.

GARCIA-PENA: What I found were very arrogant, very close-minded, very hard-to-deal-with individuals.

OTIS: James Jones, an American development consultant, agrees. Three years ago, Jones met with the guerrillas in a secret effort to liberate three US military contractors held by the FARC. He did everything he could to break the ice.

JAMES JONES: We talked into the wee hours drinking rum and smoking Cuban cigars and even tears would come to our eyes.

OTIS: Jones was later investigated by Colombian authorities and the FBI but was cleared of wrong-doing. A decade ago, there was broad support for peace negotiations with the guerrillas. Now, the Colombian army is winning the war, the FARC has been branded as a terrorist organization, and people like Piedad Cordoba are wrongly viewed as rebels in disguise, according to Garcia-Pena.

GARCIA-PENA: Piedad may have certain ideological affinity with the FARC, but something completely different is to support the FARC, to fund the FARC, to organize terrorist acts, which I am positive that Piedad has never done.

OTIS: But Cordoba is also being investigated by Colombia’s Supreme Court and legal experts, who have examined the evidence, say there’s little doubt she wrote the controversial e-mails to the guerrillas. Inspector General Ordonez, who can dismiss government officials for wrong-doing, said the case against Cordoba is strong. So is the punishment. Ordonez stripped Cordoba of her post in the senate and barred her from holding public office for 18 years. For The World, I’m John Otis in Bogota.

Colombian FARC leader killed

The World — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 19:53:11 +0000

(Flickr image: Pablo Flores)

One of the most senior leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has been killed, say reports. Jorge Briceno, also known as Mono Jojoy, died in a military air strike in the Macarena region, known to be a Farc stronghold, local media said. President Jose Manuel Santos said Jojoy’s death was “the hardest blow” in the history of the rebel movement, but as John Otis reports from southern Colombia, even a weakened FARC is likely to plague parts of the country. Download MP3

BBC coverage
Profile: FARC commander Mono Jojo
Colombian guerrilla hails from Netherlands

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. Colombia’s military says it has killed the second-in-command of the FARC rebel group. The man known as Mono Jojoy was the FARC’s military leader. Speaking in New York today, Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos called the news a crushing blow to the guerillas. It’s the latest in a string of military victories. As John Otis reports from Colombia, the FARC has been battered, but it is far from defeated. He recently spent time with the military in southern Colombia and sent this report.

JOHN OTIS: Here at Larandia military base, police and army soldiers offer a boisterous welcome to President Juan Manuel Santos. The base is a staging ground for the war against the FARC. Santos, a former soldier and defense minister, is here to rally the troops.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: Even with some high-profile victories against the FARC, rebels have staged 5 deadly ambushes this month, including an attack not far from this base that killed 14 policemen. The rebels doused their bodies with gasoline and set them on fire. Santos called it a cowardly act of terrorism.

SPEAKING SPANISH

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS: The FARC is a mouse that uses terrorism to try to roar like a lion. We are going to keep chasing that mouse until it no longer breathes.

OTIS: The carnage rekindled grim memories from a decade ago when the FARC kidnapped thousands and overran towns and army bases. That prompted a long US-backed military campaign that cut the rebel ranks in half to about 8,000 fighters. But although today’s FARC is much weaker, the guerrillas have adapted. Instead of military confrontation, they’re using snipers and explosives.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: This army lieutenant hasn’t been in a firefight in 3 years but constantly worries about stepping on rebel land mines.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: “The guerrillas are still alive,” he says. “They might be in their last days but that’s when the snake is most dangerous.” Besides army operations, President Santos is promoting a plan to build roads and schools in former rebel strongholds. He also wants to offer farmers alternatives to growing coca, the raw material for cocaine, to bring them over to the government’s side. With patriotic songs blaring, Santos took this message to San Vicente del Caguan. He chose this southern town because, until a few years ago, it was firmly in the hands of the FARC.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: Santos told the crowd his dream is to eliminate displacement, poverty and massacres and bring prosperity and peace to southern Colombia. There’s a lot of support here for the president’s plans. But as Americans found out in Iraq and Afghanistan, nation building can be more complicated than war. After all, even a smaller FARC, without some of its top leaders like Mono Jojoy, can be a menacing presence.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: That’s town councilman Eduardo Cedeño. He says the guerrillas blackmail local businesses and threaten politicians. Indeed, Cedeño survived two rebel assassination attempts in 2007 and has been assigned a police bodyguard. In addition, many residents of San Vicente and other southern towns have brothers, uncles and cousins in the FARC. That means they’re unlikely to cooperate with the army and police.

SPEAKING SPANISH

OTIS: At the town hall meeting, Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said it would have taken the FARC a lot of time and effort to carry out this month’s ambush that killed the 14 policemen. Local residents, he added, likely knew what was going on. But they remained silent. For The World, I’m John Otis, San Vicente del Caguán, Colombia.

Colombia’s oil boom

The World — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:15:58 +0000

Civil war slowed the development of Colombia’s oil industry. Now Colombia’s oil is flowing again. The government has secured the oil fields, with US help, and encouraged private companies to drill. In just three years, oil production has increased tenfold. John Otis reports. Download MP3

Colombian guerrilla hails from Netherlands

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. Oil companies have long known that there’s oil to be found in Colombia. But for many years, it wasn’t safe to look for oil there. Marxist guerrillas often bombed pipelines and kidnapped workers. Things are changing now. Improved security and better conditions for private companies have led to a nascent oil boom in Colombia as John Otis reports.

JOHN OTIS: Crude oil mixed with water gushes from a valve at Campo Rubiales, Colombia’s most important oil field. In just three years, oil production here has increased ten-fold. The Rubiales field is operated by Pacific Rubiales Energy. Ronald Pantin, the company CEO says nearly all of his company’s exploratory wells have turned up oil.

RONALD PANTIN: We have here a very interesting geology with a very high prospectivity. Actually, the company have drilled 48 exploratory wells and 42 has been successful. So that’s huge.

OTIS: Much of Colombia’s 750,000 barrels in daily oil production is exported to the United States. But until recently, many analysts feared Colombia would become an oil importer. Vast tracks of the countryside remained unexplored because they were too dangerous. Marxist guerrillas burned oil trucks, kidnapped workers and demanded extortion payments from oil companies. The Cano Limon pipeline, built by Occidental Petroleum in northern Colombia, was blown up so many times it was nicknamed “the flute.” The Rubiales field was discovered in the 1980s. But Jorge Penaloza, a supervisor who has worked here for seven years, says oil production was constantly sabotaged by the rebels who controlled the area’s lucrative cocaine trade.

SPANISH SPEAKING

OTIS: The guerrillas burned down the camp and the warehouse and forced all the workers to flee, Penaloza says. They told everyone to leave or face the consequences. The field was abandoned. But with the help of billions in US aid, the Colombian Army began pushing the guerrillas out of oil-producing areas. In 2004, the army installed a military base at the Rubiales field. There’s even an Armed Forces radio station here, where DJs urge guerrilla fighters to desert. Improved business conditions also helped Colombia’s oil industry rebound. Today, the Rubiales field buzzes with activity. 6,500 people work and live here turning this remote patch of Colombia into a small city. There are roads, restaurants, dormitories, schools and churches. Workers build everything from pipelines and waste disposal sites to a new airport terminal. They pull twelve-hour shifts as they prepare to expand daily production from 125,000 barrels to 300,000 by the end of next year. The success of Rubiales is one reason the Colombian government predicts the country’s daily oil production will double in the next eight years to 1.5 million barrels. That would make Colombia one of the top 25 producer nations. Rather than rebel violence the government is now worried about more common business issues. A massive influx of petro-dollars, for example, could strengthen the Colombian peso to the point where the country’s other exports become less competitive. But the oil bonanza also means more royalties, some of which are distributed to poor communities. And it means more jobs for people like Jorge Penaloza, the supervisor at Rubiales who began as an unskilled laborer back when the guerrillas held sway.

SPANISH SPEAKING

OTIS: Thank God, we persisted, Penaloza says. And now we work for the biggest oil company in the biggest oil field in Colombia. For The World, I’m John Otis, Campo Rubiales, Colombia.

Hunting Colombian guerillas

The World — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:18:38 +0000

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Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerillas tells the tale of how a group of Colombian soldiers on a mission to rescue hostages from FARC rebels stumbled upon a stash of buried cash. Marco Werman speaks with the book’s author, John Otis.

Book info
Colombia country profile

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. Remember the three American contractors held captive for years in the Colombian jungle? Colombian soldiers rescued them, along with politician Ingrid Bettencort, from leftist guerillas in the summer of 2008. That story got a lot of attention. Less known is the tale of an earlier, but failed rescue mission. Some Colombian soldiers out in the jungle didn’t find the hostages, but they found something else, a massive pile of buried cash. It’s detailed in a new book by John Otis, called “Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombia Guerillas”. John, by the way, is a frequent contributor to this program. John, how these soldiers came up the stash is remarkable and it’ll have to be the opening scene if you ever write a screenplay about this story. Start with the monkey meat.

JOHN OTIS: Okay, well these are Colombian soldiers. They were being pushed really hard. They’d been out in the jungle a long, long time and they’d run out of supplies, so they were killing monkeys and stewing monkeys over open fires and that was their food. So they were pretty angry and they were pretty much about ready to mutiny. That’s when one of these soldiers from eating all this horrid Amazon chow, he had an upset stomach and he ran out into the bushes to relieve himself and while he was out there, he stumbled upon all this money that had been buried by the guerillas.

WERMAN: And how much are we talking about John?

OTIS: In the end, they dug up about 20 million dollars in Colombian pesos and U.S. cash.

WERMAN: A lot more than any of these soldiers had ever seen in their lives.

OTIS: Yes, we’re talking about soldiers who were earning $44.00 a week and they were on one of the most dangerous missions in one of the most risky areas of Colombia and they were also a little resentful because they were looking for these high paid U.S. military contractor guys who were making six figures and these Colombians, they were making 200 bucks a month.

WERMAN: A high risk job, easy to justify how you might keep that money. What did they do with it?

OTIS: They stuffed their pockets. Once they got back to base, they pretty much deserted. They went into the local town and took over the bordellos and took over the bars and just started blowing their money on whiskey and prostitutes. Some of them bought appliances and flat screen televisions, but the problem is they left a trail a mile wide and military MP’s started to come after them almost immediately.

WERMAN: And so what ultimately happened to all of these millions of dollars? I guess they spent some of it, so less than what the originally found.

OTIS: They spent some of it, some of them once they were rounded up by the MP’s turned it over. A few managed to escape, get out of Colombia. Some went to Ecuador, some went to Panama, and we don’t really know what happened to them. One of the soldiers got a sex change operation and opened up a string of beauty parlors in the city of Cali.

WERMAN: The secret lives of the Colombian Army. Legally, whose cash was this?

OTIS: Most of this money was the evil profits of drug trafficking and ransom payments made to the guerillas because the guerillas are heavy involved in the kidnapping trade. In other words, the money had already been stolen, so the soldiers were stealing the money from the robbers, so to speak, so in that sense the legal against these soldiers once they were put on trial was very difficult because the soldiers argued hey, that money didn’t belong to the state, it didn’t belong to anyone. We found it. And basically the defense of the soldiers was long the lines of finders, keepers.

WERMAN: So these soldiers went on trial? How many went on trial and what was the charge?

OTIS: 147 soldiers went on trial and they were charged with stealing government property. They were convicted, but later the conviction was thrown out. But once they were free, they ended up in even greater danger because then the fark guerillas were angry that they had stolen the money from the guerillas, started to come out after them.

WERMAN: Yeah, I was going to say how did the fark react to all of this. I imagine these are people you wouldn’t want to take millions of dollars from.

OTIS: The fark guerillas put together a special hit team to track down these soldiers and kill them. They managed to do that in a couple of cases. In another case that I detail in the book, one of the soldiers had used his money from the stash to buy his father a coffee farm. The guerillas found out, they came after the soldier and couldn’t find him, so they kidnapped his father. Now the soldier felt so bad about getting his father into so much trouble, that the soldier went up into the hills to find the guerillas and he offered to trade himself for his father. So they freed his father, they took the soldier hostage and then ended up executing the soldier.

WERMAN: John, how damaging was this loss of millions of dollars for the fark?

OTIS: You know Marco, the fark is thought to earn probably anywhere between 300 and 500 million dollars annually from drug trafficking and kidnapping people for ransom. Nobody really knows exactly, but the thing is they have stashes of cash all over the jungle because they can’t very easily open up high interest bank accounts in Bogota and other cities. They have to do something with all this cash and so they bury it in the jungle. So it’s actually a little bit more common than you think that people in Colombia find stashes of money.

WERMAN: A stash of millions in the Colombian jungle, just one of the tales in “Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerillas”. John Otis is the author. Thank you very much John for speaking with us.

OTIS: Thanks Marco.

Visiting Colombia’s national parks

The World — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:13:57 +0000

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Despite the country’s dangerous reputation, the tourist business is booming in Colombia. The capital Bogotá and port city of Cartagena have both noted upticks in tourism. But some of the country’s most spectacular sights, like the Caño Cristales River, are located in former war zones and are still struggling to attract visitors. John Otis reports on efforts to improve the region’s image.

KATY CLARK: The Columbian government has something else on its plate. It’s trying to promote tourism. And it’s having some success. In recent years improved security there has helped turn the colonial city of Cartagena into a popular port for cruise ships. Yet some of Columbia’s most spectacular sites are located in former civil war zones. And as John Otis reports these places are still struggling to attract visitors.

TV COMMERCIAL: A place that challenges the imagination every single day. A place called Columbia.

JOHN OTIS: This TV spot highlights Columbia’s Andean Mountains, lush coffee farms, and Amazon jungle. According to the government-sponsored ad Columbia’s an undiscovered paradise. Vacationers seem to agree. International tourist arrivals are up by eight percent this year. But it’s not just good PR turning things around. An army offensive has driven back Marxist gorillas, kidnappings are down, and the country’s drug lords have adopted a lower, less violent, profile. But travelers remain careful. Most stick to Columbian cities like Bogota and Cartagena and they don’t know what they’re missing.

[RUNNING WATER]

This is Cano Cristales, or the crystal stream. The pristine water cascades over boulders covered with red and purple algae giving it a brilliant crimson hue. Some call it the most beautiful river in the world. Yet hardly anyone comes here. Cano Cristales National Park is in what was once gorilla territory. The rebels have largely been driven out yet foreign tourists and most Columbians for that matter still avoid Cano Cristales.

STUDENT: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: To improve the region’s image and promote Cano Cristales a group of local high school students is learning how to be park guides. One of their instructors, Luceida Amaya, says people who visit Cano Cristales get hooked.

LUCEIDA AMAYA: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

TRANSLATOR: Tourists are amazed. They become enchanted by the beauty of the region. They praise the friendliness and hospitality of the people who live here. The students are becoming experts on the park’s unique flora. But they don’t know much about chaperoning international travelers. One of them tells me that I’m the first foreigner she’s ever met. And none of the teenagers speaks more than a few words of English. To get some practice four of the guides agree to take me to Cano Cristales but it’s not easy.

[BOAT ENGINE]

First we board a leaky, wooden boat that motors us down the Guayabero River. We’re dropped off on a river bank but there’s no sign of the jeep that’s supposed to pick us up. We start hiking along a dirt road built by the gorillas.

GUIDE: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: My teenage guides tell me the rock formations are more than a billion years old. At the entrance to Cano Cristales a loan army sentry registers our names.

SOLDIER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: There’s never been a problem for tourists here the soldier says. It’s totally safe. You can even stay overnight.

Finally we reached the river. The water beckons and the guides can’t resist. They strip to their underwear and jump in.

[SPLASHES OF WATER]

So will Cano Cristales ever become a tourist draw? There are some problems lie spotty transportation and the lack of anything more than hammocks for overnight visitors. Still Cano Cristales is breathtaking and there were no bad guys in sight. Perhaps those slick commercials have it right when they claim the only risk in visiting Columbia is wanting to stay. For The World I’m John Otis, Cano Cristales, Columbia.

[MUSIC]

CLARK: The World is a lot more than just a radio program. Just check out our website, The World dot org, and see for yourself. You can find the stories you might have missed on the radio. Not to mention a dozen different podcasts covering everything from science to language. We also a variety of slideshows and short videos to take your eyes to the places your ears have already gone. It’s all just a click away. Again that’s The World dot org.

[MUSIC]

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Deserting from the FARC

The World — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:48:08 +0000

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The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country’s largest guerrilla group known as the FARC, is losing thousands of its fighters. They’re not dying…they’re giving up. Correspondent John Otis reports.

MARCO WERMAN: South of Cuba in Columbia the military continues to pound away at leftist guerillas. But what’s even more demoralizing for the revolutionary armed forces of Columbia, the rebel group known as the FARC, is that thousands of its fighters are simply giving up. Many FARC rebels, sensing they’re losing the war against the government are turning themselves in and they’re turning over valuable information to the Columbian army. Reporter John Otis has the story.

[MUSIC]

JOHN OTIS: On Columbian armed forces radio a former guerilla sings the praises of giving up and leaving the war behind.

[MUSIC]

OTIS: My life has changed, he sings. Now I’ve got a girlfriend. I’m with my family. I give thanks to God. The song is part of an army propaganda blitz that includes radio spots, posters, and leaflets dropped over rebel infested areas. And it’s working. Since President Alvaro Uribe took office seven years ago more than 12,000 FARC fighters have demobilized. Most are green recruits who became disenchanted with life in the jungle. But about 1000 of the deserters were midlevel commanders. Perhaps the most high profile deserter is Elda Mosqeura. A one-eyed female commander better known as Karina she led a series of devastating FARC attacks. But last year Karina turned herself in and now promotes the government’s demobilization program on the radio.

KARINA: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: For the Columbian army the desertions have produced a kind of virtuous circle. That’s because guerrilla turncoats often provide intelligence for army operations. And as the military strikes more blows against the FARC, more guerrillas lose their will to fight and turn themselves in. Colonel Cesar Guauta is operations chief for the army’s first mobile brigade in former rebel stronghold of La Macarena.

CESAR GUAUTA: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: He says the desertions are breaking the FARC. They demoralize the remaining fighters and provide the location of rebel camps and arms cashes.

GUAUTA: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: Guauta leads me into a tent to show off the latest rebel deserter, a 21-year-old FARC explosives expert who goes by the nom de guerre Visages. Some here are hostile towards Visages because he detonated a car bomb last year that killed two soldiers. Like many impoverished teenagers, Visages says he was drawn into the FARC by its rhetoric of Marxist revolution and social justice. He decided to quit after a FARC commander forced his pregnant rebel girlfriend to get an abortion. Visages says as the army offensive intensifies more and 6more rebels want to desert.

VISAGES: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: Visages operated in rural towns so it was easy for him to find an army patrol and turn himself in. For rebels in the jungle deserting is far more difficult and those who are caught by the FARC are executed.

GUAUTA: [SPEAKING IN SPANISH]

OTIS: Cooks at the army base in La Macarena provide Visages with three meals a day. He also gets new clothes, cigarettes, and magazines. But the army wants something in return. After dinner an intelligence officer presses Visages for the names of FARC militia men.

OFFICER: [SPEAKING IN SPANISH]

OTIS: Visages cooperates. By the time the interview ends the army officer comes away with a list of more than 20 plainclothes FARC collaborators.

OFFICER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: Visages will soon be off to Bogota where a government program gives deserters temporary housing, education, and job training. But the FARC continues to recruit and press gang teenagers into its ranks. So the army is trying to win them over before the guerrillas can.

[MUSIC]

OTIS: One program sends army musicians into villages to perform and teach youngsters guitar. And back at armed forces radio the DJs have a fulltime hob saturating the airways with stories, songs, and speeches to persuade the guerrillas to give up the fight. For The World I’m John Otis, La Macarena, Columbia.

[MUSIC]

Father carries cross for FARC hostages

The World — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:24:39 +0000

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The father of a Colombian soldier who has been held by the FARC rebel group for almost 12 years is carrying a cross through the country to remind people of those hostages still being held in the jungle. John Otis reports from Colombia

MARCO WERMAN: We don’t hear much these days about the hostages held in the jungle by Columbia’s FARC gorillas. Last year several high profile hostages were freed in a spectacular commando rescue operation. The liberation of politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American military contractors made headlines worldwide. Now at least 23 hostages are still being held by the Marxist rebels. Their families worry that the world has forgotten about them. One prisoner is Columbian army soldier Pablo Emilio Moncayo and his father is trying to raise awareness by walking across the country with a large wooden cross on his soldiers – from Granada, Columbia John Otis has the story.

JOHN OTIS: With five miles already under his belt Gustavo Moncayo stops on the side of the road to greet well wishers who offer the high school teacher bottles of soda and blocks of cheese to give him energy. He’ll need it. Moncayo is on his way to Bogotá and the final 30 miles are all uphill. Moncayo is protesting the Columbian government’s refusal to negotiate with the rebels who captured his son during a 1997 fire fight. For years gorillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia or FARC have tried to exchange their hostages for rebels held in Columbian prisons.

[SOUND CLIP OF WOMAN SPEAKING SPANISH ON TV]

Columbian TV has broadcast several proof-of-life videos of Corporal Moncayo that were released by the gorillas as a way to put more pressure on the government of President Alvaro Uribe to cut a deal.

PABLO EMILIO MONCAYO: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: In this June 2007 video Corporal Moncayo greets his family and calls on the government to make peace with the gorillas. But President Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched kidnapping attempt by the FARC, has refused to be blackmailed. Since last year’s rescue operation which freed Betancourt and the three American contractors the gorilla group has unilaterally freed some of its prisoners but Corporal Moncayo’s release has been delayed. That’s because each jungle handover has resulted in TV coverage and a publicity bonanza for the gorillas. The Uribe government is now insisting that the gorillas release Moncayo and the remaining hostages all at once. The FARC has refused. Amid the stalemate Gustavo Moncayo is carrying a home-made bamboo cross to Bogotá where he plans to symbolically crucify himself in front of the presidential palace. He says he’s tired of excuses.

GUSTAVO MONCAYO: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

TRANSLATOR: How much longer do we have to wait? We waited 11 and a half years for the gorillas to agree to free my son. And we have been waiting another six months for the government to cooperate. It’s the most unjust thing in the world.

OTIS: This isn’t the first time Moncayo has hit the road. He’s logged more than 1600 miles in protest walks including a two-month trek from Bogotá to Caracas where he pleaded with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who openly admires the FARC, to lobby for his son’s freedom. Wearing sturdy running shoes Moncayo walks about 15 miles a day. Along the way he recites poetry, answers his cell phone, and admires the Columbian countryside. But he takes frequent breaks because his bamboo cross which is held together with masking tape and rubber bands digs into his shoulders. Despite Moncayo’s efforts most Columbians support President Uribe and his refusal to give into the gorillas. Over the past seven years his law-and-order policies have weakened the FARC and led to a steep drop in kidnappings. Improved security has boosted Uribe’s popularity and fueled the effort to change the constitution to allow Uribe to serve a third term. Moncayo’s critics in turn wonder why he focuses his wrath on the government while refusing to condemn the gorillas. Still his marches have become crusades for long-suffering relatives of the remaining hostages. Some have joined Moncayo on his marches which cause traffic jams. Many motorists honk their horns in support and people lineup on the side of the highway to catch a glimpse of Moncayo and his cross.

ANONYMOUS MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

OTIS: This woman says that as a mother she feels Moncayo’s pain but she laments the fact that his march has seemed to have made no difference. They have however turned Moncayo into a celebrity at home. He’s addressed audiences in the United States and Europe about Columbia’s hostage crisis and Moncayo says that he’ll keep on walking until the government and the gorillas reach a deal to free his son. For The World I’m John Otis, Grenada, Columbia.