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Hostage saga embarrassment to FARC, Chávez

A 3-year-old boy has scored a political trifecta, embarrassing Latin America's most powerful guerrilla group and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and giving a boost to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

According to a DNA analysis performed by the Colombian government, a boy living in a foster home in Bogotá is most likely the toddler rebels had promised to release along with his mother, Clara Rojas, shortly before Christmas.

Preliminary results from tests performed on Rojas' mother and brother showed that ''there's a greater probability the boy belongs to the Rojas family than any other family,'' Colombia's top prosecutor, Mario Iguarán, said Friday.

The results gave a black eye to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, indicating that its top leaders had either lied in making the offer to release the hostages or had lost one of their high-value hostages and didn't even know it.

The Colombian government took the opportunity to blast the FARC.

''This proves again that the FARC is lying to the world, laughing in the face of national and international public opinion by offering someone they didn't have,'' said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

A FARC representative confirmed Friday that the group did not have the boy, and others said the botched operation reflected not lying but serious difficulties inside the rebel group.

''The most likely scenario is that the FARC is in complete disarray and that they somehow lost one of their highest-prized hostages,'' said Adam Isacson, a Colombia analyst with the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank.

Though the right-of-center Uribe appeared to have been outsmarted by the FARC's offer -- his hard-line approach to negotiations with the rebels has been harshly criticized by political opponents and relatives of hostages -- he seems to have emerged from the busted hostage release as the only credible figure in the process.

Chávez suffered a humiliating embarrassment. The FARC's offer to release the three hostages to him had put him in the spotlight. He had assembled a team of high-profile international observers to witness the release -- including former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner and U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone -- and sent Venezuelan helicopters to pick them up in the jungle. They were left waiting.

It was his second political blow in the last two months. In early December he lost a referendum to change the constitution, including one article that would have allowed him to seek indefinite reelection.

Since the botched operation -- which he had dubbed Operation Emmanuel after the little boy -- Chávez has remained unusually quiet. Venezuelan officials have complained, however that Colombia has not permitted its own team of specialists to take blood samples from the boy for DNA testing.

By tasco66 on Jan 5, 2008, 07:20 in Politics & the war.

dwr says on Jan 5, 2008, 17:19:

Today the Farc admitted they didnt have the boy putting to rest any doubts.

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chrispej says on Jan 5, 2008, 19:22:

Welcome to Colombia......

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timeforachangeofscenery says on Jan 5, 2008, 20:05:

When news first emerged on CNN about a proposed deal with the FARC, I remember reading a LOT about how fantastic Chavez and Stone were and how evil Uribe was.

I also read on the 31st of December on CNN that a misinformed American by the name of Oliver Stone had the audacity to stand up and announce at the top of his lungs to the assembled world media, "Shame on Colombia - Shame on Uribe".

Without shame or humility, Stone then went on to attack the people of Colombia and their democratically elected government because of their refusal to negotiate with a terrorist organisation.

Stone, whose only qualification to speak publically on such matters is that he makes movies, was then quoted as stating to the assembled media, "the FARC have no motive not to release these hostages."

I wonder how Stone must be feeling (perhaps) after realising that he was nothing more than the mouth piece for a left wing militarist with views to expand his socialist agenda in South America by actively supporting leftist terrorist organisations in neighbouring countries.

Perhaps Stone should keep his privately held views to himself and leave the internal runnings of a country to those democratically elected to oversee them.

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billyb says on Jan 5, 2008, 20:27:

I think Stone is too ignorant of the real situation in Colombia to be contrite over his assinine comments, since in his feeble mind he probably still believes that the aborted release was Colombia's fault and not the FARC's.

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robi666 says on Jan 5, 2008, 20:30:

"their democratically elected government"
Something forgotten too often...

"I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present."

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billyb says on Jan 5, 2008, 20:35:

True, Robi.

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Chelesupercono says on Jan 6, 2008, 08:56:

Stone is nothing more than a typical Hollywood no nothing asshole....

never go to bed with someone crazier then you are, you will do it and you will regret it.......

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