Word: farces
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...city's beating heart is La Candelaria - the 400-year-old Spanish colonial core, located just off of the grand, European-style Plaza Bolivar. Not so long ago, this was a frequent battleground between FARC guerrillas and Colombian security forces - but thanks to effective security measures, the violence has given way to new hotels, cafés and galleries, including the Centro Cultural Gabriel García Márquez, www.fce.com.co, a Modernist library and exhibition space named after the country's literary giant. (See pictures of the FARC guerrillas...
...February 2003, three American contractors crash-landed in the Colombian jungle and were captured by FARC, the country's long-lasting Marxist rebel group. For the next five years, the three were held hostage--many of their captors little more than brainwashed youths with guns--facing snakes, insects, disease and constant movement from one dank jungle camp to the next. But the character earning the most scorn in their lengthy account turns out to be a fellow captive. French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, whose rescue in the same mission that freed the authors made world headlines, comes...
...Perhaps more revealing is the mens' first-hand description of the disintegration of the FARC, a 45-year-old Marxist rebel group that funds its war with the profits from drug trafficking and kidnapping. When the Americans were captured, the FARC was at its peak with about 18,000 members. Rations included beef and vegetables, rebel commandantes showed off their chrome-plated pistols and zipped around guerrilla territory in SUVs while guards led their prisoners along jungle trails singing songs with little fear of being detected. Many of the foot soldiers were illiterate teenagers who, in between battles, munched...
...with the help of billions in U.S. military aid, the Colombian Army has laid waste to many FARC units and squeezed their supply lines. Shortly before the Americans were rescued, their diet consisted of coffee, rice, lentils and, of all things, popcorn - the smell of which almost tipped off a team of Colombian and American Special Forces hot on their trail. Though the military offensive made life harder for the hostages, it also filled them with hope. "We were exhausted, we were starved and our supply lines were getting torn up," Howes says. "But it was a good feeling knowing...
...Shortly after their rescue, Stansell, Gonsalves and Howes met their hero, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who has led the offensive against the FARC and pledged to crush the rebel organization. Uribe is now considering a controversial move to change the Constitution and run for a third-consecutive term, a move that the Americans fully endorse. "He's the best president in probably 100 years," Howes says...