Colombian rebels free hostage soldier - Red Cross

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian rebels free hostage soldier - Red Cross
33 mins ago

Colombian rebels released a kidnapped soldier to a humanitarian mission in the remote southern jungle, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Sunday.

In the first of two planned handovers, guerrillas freed Josue Daniel Calvo, a soldier held for nearly a year since he was wounded in combat and captured by the FARC, Latin America's longest-running insurgency.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, planned to release the second of the 23 police and soldiers it held to the Red Cross team and leftist Senator Piedad Cordoba on Tuesday. "In the hours of the afternoon today in a rural part of Meta State, the soldier Jose Daniel Calvo was handed over by the FARC," the Red Cross said in a statement.

The release is the latest unilateral handover by the FARC, which calls it a goodwill gesture. But broader peace talks appear unlikely with President Alvaro Uribe, whose U.S.-backed campaign has battered the FARC to its weakest position in decades.

More:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100328/tpl-uk-colombia-hostages-81f3b62.html

[protocol rv]

1. The government feels it's winning against the FARC

The FARC seem to be on the run, they have lost quite a few leaders, the information in the computer found in Ecuador was very useful, and the introduction of modern counter-insurgency techniques by the Colombian military seems to be turning the tide. So the government doesn't feel it needs to negotiate. Evidently the FARC response will be to use urban terrorism. I would expect them to start using car bombs a lot more often. The key to defeating the FARC is for the USA to legalize drug use, and for the Colombian government to emphasize developing a better judiciary, and of course improve the lot of the poor via education and health care.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombian soldier freed by rebels

Colombian soldier freed by rebels

A Colombian soldier who was held by Colombian rebels for more than 11 months was released Sunday.

Josue Daniel Calvo was reunited with his family on a tarmac in the city of Villavicencio, where the helicopter that retrieved him touched down.

The young soldier was released to a humanitarian mission led by Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba.

Calvo became dizzy and sick on the helicopter ride, but was in better health than they expected, Cordoba said at a news conference.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/28/colombian-soldier-freed-by-rebels/

~~~~~
Red Cross: Colombian rebels freed captive soldier
(AP) – 45 minutes ago

VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia — Colombian rebels released a soldier to the International Red Cross on Sunday after holding him for almost a year in captivity.

Red Cross spokesman Adolfo Beteta said 23-year-old Pvt. Josue Daniel Calvo was in the hands of the humanitarian group and heading home.

Beteta spoke to reporters at the airport in the city of Villavicencio, where a Brazilian helicopter emblazoned with the Red Cross logo took off earlier Sunday bound for the undisclosed hand-over point in the Colombian jungle.

He said officials "have no worrying news" about the health of Calvo, who according to the rebels has been suffering from an unknown ailment. He was captured on April 20, 2009, by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWbfNgB4cU_Ot9C2KIyRIXSPG-dgD9ENQ2P80

[rabs]

3. Trooper Calvo is looking good (sister and father with him)

for having been held in a jungle prison for a year. For the past two days the uribista-loving Colimbian press had been saying that he was gravely ill from a bullet wound in one of his knees. The phnoto give the lie to those claims.




video of Calvo's father rambling on and on ... thanks uribe, brazil, armed forces bla bla bla ... trooper Calvo remains silent, looks to be in very good health.


http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/paz/articulo195480-rodeado-de-su-familia-el-soldado-josue-daniel-calvo-libertad

The next release is set for Tuesday.

Incidentally, read last night that those two helicopters are indeed from the Brazilian military. That had to get approval from way up high in Brasilia, like from Lula himself.

[Judi Lynn]

4. He looks absolutely healthy, doesn't he? Yes, it does cast a bit of doubt

on the stories which claimed he was in "grave" condition.

Remember they said the same things when the politician was a prisoner, and being returned? She looked just FINE for christ's sake. (Can't remember her name. She was the one released in the stupid stunt prisoner release arranged by Uribe with the fake Red Cross disguise, and fake Telesur journalists.)

She also advocated serious dialogue between the Colombian government and the FARCs.

[rabs]

5. Ingrid Betancourt n/t

[Bacchus39]

6. except for that really bad limp that will require surgery I assume

and no doubt Ingrid Betancourt enjoyed all her years in captivity and being chained by the neck to trees. probably hated to be rescued.

[protocol rv]

7. FARC join Medicine Sans Frontieres

In an effort to improve the medical care they give their captives, the FARC has joined Medicine Sans Frontieres. The NGO director stated:

"They are very interested in courses on how to cure the skin sores caused by chains wrapped around their captives' necks, and other practical aspects of the medical care of prisoners kept in the jungle in terrible conditions".

The FARC's medical director Juan "El Bisturi Loco" Fernandez, is reported to be on his way to Paris to receive a medal from the International Committee of Terrorist Apologizers (ICTA), for his outstanding efforts saving the lives of the hundreds of captives and kidnap victims kept by the FARC over the years.

[protocol rv]

8. FARC Releases Swedish Kidnap Victim

The FARC, Colombia`s largest rebel group, often kidnaps for extortion though it has rarely targeted foreigners.

Colombia's FARC guerrillas freed their last foreign hostage, an ailing Swedish national they kidnapped nearly two years ago in an extortion attempt, Colombian authorities said on Tuesday. The captive, identified by police as Erik Roland Larsson, 69, was snatched from his farm by rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who officials say had initially sought a $5 million ransom for his release.

Two photographs from the DAS state security police showed agents lifting Larsson, barefoot, dressed in a green T-shirt and blue pants, out of a canoe and carrying him across muddy, rural terrain after he was handed over by guerrillas.

"He is in a delicate state of health and at this moment is being evaluated by a medical team in the city of Monteria. He will later be transferred to Bogota," the DAS said in a statement.

The FARC, Colombia's largest rebel group, often kidnaps for extortion though it has rarely targeted foreigners. Violence and kidnapping from the country's four-decade war has dropped off as the rebels have been weakened by President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed security campaign.

http://dalje.com/en-world/colombian-farc-rebels-free-swedish-kidnap-victim/243733

[protocol rv]

9. British Victim discusses his ordeal after being kidnapped by FARC

A British banker has spoken for the first time of his 10-month ordeal as a hostage of Colombian guerrillas after they kidnapped him on his way home from supper with friends.

"Men grabbed me as I was about to get into the lift of my building, tied my hands and feet behind my back, placed masking tape over my mouth and a rag with some sort of drug over my nose," David Hutchinson told The Telegraph.

The next time he breathed any fresh air was when he was taken out of the boot of his car. He felt the piercing cold of the high Andes mountain range outside Bogota.

The kidnappers were handing him over to a group of uniformed guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), one of the most powerful and, thanks to kidnapping and drugs, richest rebel armies in the world.

For four months Mr Hutchinson, 60, a former banking executive with Lloyds, was kept in the mountains, living under a poncho. It rained every day. "We were permanently wet and did not bath very often for fear of catching pneumonia," he said looking relaxed on a sofa in his Bogota flat after his release last month.

In August, when the hard-line President Alvaro Uribe took office, the Farc decided that it was safer to move him south into its jungle strongholds and for 15 days he and six other hostages marched more than 200 miles, climbing down the mountains into the Amazon jungle.

He caught leishmaniasis, a tropical disease caused by a fly bite. The bite becomes a sore and parasites eat the flesh down to the bone.

"It can only be treated with special drugs, which we obviously could not get," Mr Hutchinson said.

"The guerrillas did offer a cure which involved placing a machete into the fire until it became white hot then burning off the flesh around the wound. I decided that that really wasn't a very good idea."

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.