Colombia’s military has shown for the first time a video detailing a daring rescue operation that set free 15 rebel-held hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
The images, unveiled on Friday, showed the captives angry and resigned at having their hands bound, and then minutes later sobbing with jubilation aboard a helicopter upon discovering they had been freed.
The video of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels benignly handing over 15 hostages to disguised Colombian commandos was released to counter questions about the military’s dramatic and bloodless coup, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.
“This is absolutely false,” Santos told reporters, when asked about reports that US$20 million dollars had been paid as ransom and that it was all arranged in advance with a rebel in charge of the hostages.
The 15 hostages, including French-Colombian Betancourt and three US defense contractors, were rescued on Wednesday after Colombian soldiers disguised as rebels arrived at a jungle hideout of the FARC and tricked the guerrillas into handing them over, ostensibly to be transferred to another rebel site.
The video shows a small team of unarmed, disguised Colombian commandos landing in a field of coca bushes in Guaviare department in southeast Colombia, where they were met by a group of FARC rebels, mostly women, escorting the 15 hostages.
It then shows them binding the hands of the hostages with plastic cuffs.
One hostage, a Colombian soldier, believing the cameraman was a real journalist, angrily complained about his 10 years in captivity.
Once aboard the disguised military helicopter, the video showed Betancourt and others reacting in surprise and breaking out in tears after the cuffs were removed and the soldiers revealed themselves.
Earlier on Friday the Swiss radio station Radio Suisse Romande reported that the bloodless release of the captives was obtained by paying US$20 million to the FARC.
The hostages “were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,” the radio’s French-language channel said.
In Colombia, reports said that, far from being a ruse, the handover was prearranged with a payoff through the lover of a turncoat FARC leader.
Colombian Army chief General Mario Montoya denied in the press conference that any money was paid in the rescue.
“We have not paid one single cent, much less US$20 million. That would have been cheap,” he said, according to a CNN translation.
“Because we had offered US$100 million. If they would have just handed over the hostages, there wouldn’t have been any mission,” he said.
Santos and Montoya said the video was taken by a Colombian soldier posing as a journalist accompanying the supposed transfer operation.
They said he was there to distract FARC leaders on the ground by interviewing them.
When the Dutch began interacting with the indigenous people of Taiwan, they found that their hunters classified deer hide quality for trade using the Portuguese terms for “head,” “belly,” and “foot.” The Portuguese must have stopped here more than once to trade, but those visits have all been lost to history. They already had a colony on Macao, and did not need Taiwan to gain access to southern China or to the trade corridor that connected Japan with Manila. They were, however, the last to look at Taiwan that way. The geostrategic relationship between Taiwan and the Philippines was established
Sept. 9 to Sept. 15 The upgrading of sugarcane processing equipment at Ciaozaitou Sugar Factory (橋仔頭) in 1904 had an unintended but long-lasting impact on Taiwan’s transportation and rural development. The newly imported press machine more than doubled production, leading to an expansion of the factory’s fields beyond what its original handcarts and oxcarts could handle. In 1905, factory manager Tejiro Yamamoto headed to Hawaii to observe how sugarcane transportation was handled there. They had trouble finding something suitable for Taiwan until they discovered a 762mm-gauge “miniature” railroad at a small refinery in the island of Maui. On
“Once you get there, you think, that’s a little embarrassing or revealing or scary... but ultimately, I learned that is where the good stuff is,” says Taiwanese-American director Sean Wang about writing indie breakout Didi (弟弟), which debuted at Sundance Film Festival Asia 2024 in Taipei last month. Didi is a heartwarming coming-of-age story centered on the Asian American experience. Not just a 2000s teenage nostalgia piece, but a raw, unflinching look at immigrant families and adolescent identity struggles. It quickly became the centerpiece of the event, striking a chord with not only those sharing similar backgrounds but anyone who’s ever
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built