Castro Calls on FARC to Release Hostages; Americans Rescued from FARC Recovering in San Antonio; FARC Hostages were Chained by the Neck

By Christopher Gehrke
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, South America

HAVANA, Cuba – Fidel Castro has called on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to release all of its remaining hostages.  The former leader made these comments after the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and others earlier this week.

Castro, in an internet message, said that he had energetically criticized the “cruel methods of kidnapping and holding prisoners in the jungle.”  He added, however, that the rebels should not lay down its weapons, noting that rebel groups who did yield “did not survive to see the peace.”

Castro’s Cuban revolution was an inspiration to FARC when it formed in the 1960’s.

For more information, please see:
BBC News – Fidel Castro in Farc hostage plea – 6 July 2008

Malaysia Sun – Fidel Castro sends message to Betancourt kidnappers – 6 July 2008

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SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Three Americans rescued from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are well today.

“Words alone can never possibly express the thrill and excitement we feel to be back home in the United States of America with our families at our side,” a Friday statement said.

Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves, and Thomas Howes are being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.  They had been held hostage by FARC for over 5 years after their plane crashed in Colombia.  FARC members killed another contractor, Tom Janis, shortly after the crash.

The Americans were rescued along with more than 10 other hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

For more information, please see:
CNN – Freed American hostages ‘overwhelmed with emotion’ – 6 July 2008

UPI – 3 U.S. hostages thank Colombian government – 5 July 2008

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PARIS, France – Hostages recently rescued from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) told stories of their treatment this week.

CNN reports that they were chained by their necks to trees or to each other as punishment.  CNN also reported that there was little food and poor conditions in the jungles of Colombia.

“I reached a moment where I understood that death was a possibility,” newly freed hostage Ingrid Betancourt said in a recent interview.  “I had seen my companions die.  I knew that death arrives very, very quickly in the jungle.”

Betancourt was chained to the neck after an escape attempt.  “When you have a chain around your neck, you have to keep your head down and try to accept your fate without succumbing entirely to the humiliation, without forgetting who you are,” Betancourt said.

For more information, please see:
CNN – Hostages chained by the neck, slept in mud – 4 July 2008

The Scotsman – ‘Mission impossible’ in the jungle – 6 July 2008