The Dun Laoghaire TD and former minister for foreign affairs, Mr David Andrews, entered La Picota prison in Bogota, the Colombia capital, yesterday afternoon to visit three Irish men charged with terrorism offences.
Mr Niall Connolly, Mr Martin McAuley and Mr James Monaghan, arrested last August, are being held in the maximum security wing of the prison, their case due to come to trial in May. Mr Andrews had said he was going to Colombia with an open mind, in both a personal capacity and in his role as chairman of the Irish Red Cross.
The visit occurred in an atmosphere of growing tension as prosecutors claimed rebel troops were about to make a raid on the prison.
The state prosecutor, Mr Guillermo Mendoza Diago, requested permission last week to move the three men to a more secure facility in Valledupar, 16 hours' drive away. In June last year a FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces) urban commando attacked La Picota, allowing 98 prisoners to escape.
The Colombian prison service refused to transfer the men, insisting that the law only permits convicted criminals to be housed in Valledupar.
United Nations investigators reported in November that prisoners in Valledupar had been beaten with metal batons wrapped in rubber and forced to sleep in cardboard huts in prison yards while wealthier inmates bought their way into better conditions.
"This bizarre attempt to move the men to Valledupar shows the three have been convicted before the trial even begins," said a Colombian political analyst, Mr Javier Guerrero. In a curious irony the first-ever escape from Valledupar prison occurred last Wednesday, shaking confidence in the nation's most secure facility.
Mr Andrews said he would be inspecting the conditions in which the three men were being held and would ask them why they were travelling under false passports when they were originally detained by the Colombian authorities.
The prison visit also occurred hours before government troops moved back into a demilitarised zone in south-west Colombia, ceded to FARC three years ago to facilitate peace talks.
FARC agreed to leave by 0230 GMT today after President Andres Pastrana rejected their draft proposal for salvaging stalled peace talks on Saturday night.
The Office of the Public Prosecutor in Bogota has now completed its investigation into the alleged activities of the three Irish men. The former driver of the FARC leader, Mr Fabian Ramirez, who has turned informer, claims he was personally instructed in the use of explosives by Mr Monaghan and Mr McCauley over a 15-day period.
The end of the peace process bodes ill for the three detained men as the Colombian government contends that FARC accepted the benefits of the peace zone while preparing for war, allowing the prosecution to argue that the presence of the three Irish men responded precisely to that strategy.
The prosecution will rely mainly on the testimony of deserters from FARC, who will expect to gain materially from testifying against the three men.