COLOMBIAN TROOPS rescued three members of the security forces in a raid on a jungle prison of the Marxist Farc guerrilla movement on Sunday, in the latest blow to South America’s longest-running insurgency.
The three men freed – Gen Luis Mendieta and Col Enrique Murillo of the police and Sgt Arbey Delgado of the army – had all been held by the guerrillas since 1998. Gen Mendieta was the highest-ranking prisoner in Farc hands.
Three hundred troops took part in the rescue, code-named Operation Chameleon, which defence minister Gabriel Silva said was six months in the planning. The breakthrough came when a guerrilla captured in March pinpointed the location of the rebel group holding the men.
“Thanks to the work of army intelligence, the operation went impeccably without any losses and without putting the lives of the hostages at risk,” said Mr Silva.
But a fourth hostage known to be held with the three freed men was still unaccounted for.
Maj William Donato Gómez was seen fleeing into the jungle during the raid but has not been seen since. “We hope he is hiding himself and we will find him in the next few hours,” said the minister.
Due to the remoteness of the terrain, the three freed men stayed at a nearby army camp overnight and were due back in the capital Bogotá yesterday. The rebels still hold at least 18 other security force members.
The raid is the latest victory for the government of President Álvaro Uribe against the Farc, the Spanish initials for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, since he came to power in 2002. After failed negotiations with the group by his predecessor, Mr Uribe beefed up the military and sent it on the offensive.
In recent years it has killed several of the Farc’s senior leadership and reduced its fighting strength by more than half to less than 9,000 combatants. Today the group, which has been fighting for over four decades, has been pushed back into the country’s remote jungle regions.
The rescue comes just a week before Colombians vote to elect a successor to the hugely popular Mr Uribe. The clear favourite to win is his former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos, who oversaw 2008’s Operation Jaque, in which the Farc was tricked into handing over to the military its most valuable hostages, including a former presidential candidate and three US military contractors.
Though it has suffered setbacks in recent years, the Farc is still considered the world’s richest guerrilla movement, due to control over large parts of Colombia’s multi-billion euro cocaine trade.
“The Farc are finished. They only keep fighting because they know nothing else and they still have plenty of money thanks to cocaine users in the US and Europe. But in Colombia they have no support and no hope of winning,” says Bogotá resident Rafael Mayorga.