Four kidnapped Colombian officers freed after 12 years of captivity in the jungle said they had been chained up by guerrillas and survived by listening to messages from relatives broadcast over the radio.
Elite troops rescued the officers on Sunday in a raid that highlights the success of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s tough security line just a week before his former defense minister looks set to win an election to succeed him.
The four men, including police General Luis Mendieta, the highest-ranking officer to be kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), arrived home to a hero’s welcome at a military airport in Bogota on Monday, greeted by families who had only seen them occasionally in guerrilla videos for more than a decade.
PHOTO: EPA
“For the last 16 months we had no access to radios so I came out not knowing much about Colombia, about the world, the country, and everything,” Mendieta told reporters.
Flanked by his wife and two children, Mendieta described to reporters how he and the others were preparing to “celebrate” his 53rd birthday on Sunday when the sudden sound of gunfire had them diving for cover.
“The shots begin, the grenades begin and I throw myself to the ground,” he said. “For more than 20 minutes [soldiers] keep up the attack.”
Eventually the guerrillas scattered into the jungle, trying to escape. The hostages also fled for their lives and were separated, he said, some running into the forest cover.
Soon “the army force arrives and I make first contact with them when I see a uniformed man with a helmet,” Mendieta said.
The other three were rescued in the hours that followed — police Lieutenant Colonel William Donato, 41, was found in good health early on Monday after taking refuge among trees more than 80m tall.
So far the military command has not given details on the rescue operation dubbed “Chameleon,” citing the need to protect the safety of those who took part.
But army Sergeant Arbey Delgado said from his vantage point as a hostage it looked like a clean, well-planned raid.
“The guerrillas took off running and abandoned their weapons and gear,” he said. “The commandos make the impossible possible. There’s a place in heaven for the commandos.”
Three of the hostages still had 4m chains around their necks when they arrived in Bogota because the military had not yet been able to find a saw to cut them off.
Mendieta and police Colonel Enrique Murillo were captured during a November 1998 siege of the eastern provincial capital of Mitu.
Delgado and Donato were taken in August of the same year during a rebel attack on an anti-drug outpost in the southern jungle town of Miraflores.
The military rescue, which took six months to plan, is the first since July 2008, when soldiers posing as members of a humanitarian mission freed former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US contractors and 11 police and military officials held by the FARC.
The three policemen, dressed in brand-new uniforms, returned to headquarters later on Monday to the cheers of their colleagues.
“I’m walking on air,” Mendieta said as he entered the building.
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