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Colombian hostage released after 12 years

Pablo Emilio Moncayo, a soldier, was only 19 when he was kidnapped by the leftists Colombian rebel group FARC. Last night, at age 32, he was released. He looks to be in good health, with only a minor parasitic condition. It’s pretty unimaginable to think about: the idea of being held captive for a decade ...

By Elizabeth Dickinson, International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.

March 31, 2010, 8:50 PM

Pablo Emilio Moncayo, a soldier, was only 19 when he was kidnapped by the leftists Colombian rebel group FARC. Last night, at age 32, he was released. He looks to be in good health, with only a minor parasitic condition.

It’s pretty unimaginable to think about: the idea of being held captive for a decade in the jungle. Not least for Moncayo’s family; his father spent the last decade campaigning for his release — even walking across the country, his body wrapped in chains, to protest his son’s continued captivity. Moncayo became a symbol of the injustice of it all — and also a symbol of the critiques that many held (and still hold) of the hostage policies of the Alvaro Uribe government, namely that it has conducted armed rescue efforts in the past and has been reluctant to offer concessions in exchange for prisoner release.

This case, however, offers to pieces of important news, the first of which has largely been missed:

The mediation for Moncayo’s release came with Brazilian help. This matters because Colombia has tried and failed to work with neighbors on hostage negotiations in the past, most notably Venezuela, so it is big news if Brazil is now in the fold. Back in 2007, the Colombian government looked to the left-leaning government of Hugo Chávez for help reaching the left-leaning FARC. But the operation failed miserably. Colombia felt that Venezuela was getting too cozy with the FARC and called off the negotiations. Venezuela recalled its ambassador from Bogotá.

From that moment, Colombia has been flying solo. Many found it to be quite a "coup" of sorts when the famous hostage, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, was freed without Venezuelan help. Brazil’s new presence signals a search for new partners on the part of Colombia, and perhaps a slight softening of security policies to allow for negotiations and hostage release.

Interesting enough, Uribe may also be moving closer to approving a "humanitarian exchange" (read: prisoner swap) that could bring more of the 20 or so remaining FARC hostages their freedom. Perhaps now that he knows he is leaving office soon — in August to be exact — he has the ability politically to step back ever so slightly from the no compromise antiterror policies that have been the trademark of his administration. It’s a thorny issue: victims’ families clearly want to secure their release. But how do you negotiate with terrorists, as the FARC are? Compromises (or at least minor concessions) might be needed to release the last hostages once and for all.

That’s clearly what hostages such Moncayo might prefer; he didn’t thank Uribe when he landed free — only the governments of Venezuela and Ecuador.

LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images

Elizabeth Dickinson is International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.

Tag: Colombia