Word: colombia
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...hostage of Colombia's Marxist guerrillas is to be on the move. The rebels - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - sequester their captives deep inside the country's mountainous jungle terrain, and they regularly lead them on long, arduous marches from one mosquito-infested camp to another to keep the Colombian military from detecting their whereabouts. But on one of those treks today, the FARC finally exposed itself long enough for the army to score one of the most stunning hostage rescues in the history of a country where human abduction is virtually a national pastime...
...battle victory - no commando missile attack on a FARC camp, like the one that killed the FARC's No. 2 leader, Raul Reyes, last March - could have dealt Colombia's once powerful guerrillas a more devastating blow than the liberation operation that took place along the Apaporis River in southern Guaviare province, long a FARC stronghold. Under conservative President Alvaro Uribe, and with the help of the $5 billion U.S. aid crusade known as Plan Colombia, the once laughable Colombian military has severely hobbled the FARC, slashing its ranks from as many as 20,000 combatants a decade...
...rescue operation was dubbed Jaque - which means "check," as in checkmate, in Spanish - and was indicative of how deeply Colombia's military intelligence has been able to infiltrate the FARC's top hierarchy, the secretariat, in recent months. A government mole had been able to convince those bosses to transfer Betancourt and the 14 other hostages to the encampment of the FARC's new No. 1 leader, Alfonso Cano. Under the yoke of a FARC unit led by Comandante Cesar, the group made its way to a smaller camp belonging to a friendly NGO. "They tied our hands and feet...
...woman with downcast eyes, taken from a proof-of-life video released at that time. In April, fears had mounted that Betancourt, 46, might be near death - supposedly from hepatitis B. French President Nicolas Sarkozy dispatched Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, himself a physician, and an emergency medical team to Colombia to await her release. Betancourt's release was one of Sarkozy's campaign promises. But after waiting for days the plane returned to France, having failed in its mission. With Wednesday's rescue, Herve Marot, spokesman for the French support committee for Betancourt, warmly thanked Sarkozy and his government. "There...
...Bush Administration had come under increasing criticism this year for seeming to forget about Stansell, Howes and Gonsalves. But it can now openly claim, as U.S. officials had privately done, that it was simply allowing the Colombians to mount today's rescue. U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield confirmed Wednesday night that the U.S. had been involved in the planning and intelligence-gathering stages of the operation. One fortunate politician who can bask in this American policy victory is John McCain, who just happened to be visiting Colombia when the rescue was announced...