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"Operation Checkmate Deux" Ingrid Betancourt As Alvaro Uribe's Sidekick In 2010 Election

Daring sting freed Colombian jungle hostages

Operation Checkmate, the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt from six years of captivity, was a masterclass in military stealth

There was one awful moment when General Freddy Padilla de Leon, Colombia’s most senior military officer, feared that months of secret planning to free Ingrid Betancourt from six years of jungle misery had been lost to a guerrilla answering the call of nature.

Padilla’s troops were in position along the Apaporis River, deep in the wilderness of Guaviare province, 400 miles southeast of Bogota. Weeks earlier, Colombian special forces had infiltrated the region and spotted three American and two Colombian hostages bathing in the river as their captors watched.

Outmanned and at that point uncertain about the whereabouts of the other hostages, the soldiers kept their distance. With the help of US intelligence agents, the Colombians later planted video and motion-sensor devices at several points along the river.

“We had one alarm,��? the general told The Sunday Times in an exclusive briefing on the daring mission that last week plucked Betancourt and 14 other hostages from the heart of the jungle controlled by the extreme left-wing Farc guerrilla movement.

“One of the guerrillas walked into the jungle to go to the bathroom and kicked our device,��? he said. At a military command and control centre monitoring the area, officers held their breath. But they detected no sign that the guerrillas realised they were being watched. Operation Checkmate was still alive.

The extraordinary story of the rescue of a 46-year-old Colombian politician who became a worldwide symbol of hostage suffering reads like a Hollywood script too implausible even for a Rambo film.

Betancourt, who has dual French nationality, had barely stepped off the plane to a heroine’s reception in Paris on Friday when reports started circulating that the Colombians had lied about the military operation, that a huge ransom had been paid, that Israel’s Mossad security service had been involved and that Betancourt was incidental to a CIA deal to recover three American military contractors seized in 2003.

Padilla stood up from a cream leather sofa in his spacious office at the Ministry of Defence in Bogota. “Yes, yes,��? he said, “people will always say it’s impossible that Colombians did this on their own. Of course the gringos have to be present.��?

He beckoned me into his war room, a windowless annexe dominated by a huge map table covered with flags and symbols showing rebel positions in Guaviare province and the movements of security forces pursuing them. For the next hour he laid out in intricate detail the planning, training and execution of one of the greatest military wheezes in Latin American history.

It was a bold military gambit and a masterpiece of theatrical fraud. Farc guerrillas were tricked into giving up Betancourt without a shot being fired, a scenario that had seemed unthinkable for a lethal group of several thousand controlling a $200m-a-year drugs business.

Betancourt was an obscure but ambitious Colombian senator campaigning as a long-shot presidential candidate when she was seized in 2002. For six years and four months she endured unthinkable hardship and crippling disappointments as other hostages were released.

The more the world demanded her release, the more valuable she seemed to become to her captors. Punished for efforts to escape, she spent long periods chained by her neck to trees, suffered from untreated infections and intestinal upsets and endured long marches over punishing terrain.

It was a rare convergence of military audacity and political will that finally enabled the Colombian army to strike at the guerrilla strongholds, which are shielded by jungle-smothered mountains.

After 40 years of fighting leftist revolutionaries, the Colombian military had at last infiltrated Farc’s hierarchy over the past year, said Padilla: “Our intelligence chiefs began to think it would be possible to direct our forces at the rescue of hostages.��?

Several previous rescue attempts had ended in disaster and, deep in the jungle, Betancourt worried that another botched attempt might cost her and the other hostages their lives. American, French and Venezuelan officials were also pressing for negotiation rather than military force.

Yet the Colombians were encouraged by an intelligence breakthrough when security forces crossed the border into Ecuador last March and killed Raul Reyes, a prominent Farc leader, and returned to Bogota with a laptop computer which held extensive details of his group’s operations.

This, and intelligence from moles inside Farc, provided Padilla’s officers with an insight into how the guerrillas organised their forces and moved the hostages around the jungle.

By the end of May, Padilla said, officers had concluded that “maybe��? Farc could be tricked into gathering the hostages at a place where they might be rescued. Military intelligence agents were recruited to act as guerrillas, helicopter pilots, journalists and aid workers – but were not told why.

Last month the general presented his political masters with a daring rescue plan using white helicopters similar to those used in previous hostage deals mediated by Venezuela. This time, though, they would be manned by Colombian agents in disguise.

Juan Manuel Santos, the defence minister, agreed immediately. For President Alvaro Uribe, a staunch ally of George W Bush, a difficult decision loomed. If the operation went wrong, Padilla said, “we would be in trouble with France and America��?.

American officials were consulted and some doubted the Colombians could pull it off. A US official told The New York Times last week: “More than one person said, ‘My God, this looks like a movie plot’.��?

Uribe, who has become popular at home for Colombia’s economic growth and for his successes against Farc, listened carefully as Padilla outlined his plan. Everything hinged on fooling the guerrilla group holding Betancourt into believing that Farc’s central command wanted the hostages moved.

“And the president said yes,��? Padilla said, slapping his thigh for emphasis. “He also said he was taking personal responsibility for the decision. It was a very emotional moment.��? It was time to tell the bogus helicopter crews the true nature of their mission. “I talked to them one by one,��? the general said. “I told them they could easily be killed or taken hostage for 10 years. I asked them if they wanted to help to free Ingrid. Every one of them said yes.��?

For three weeks the teams trained in isolation to prevent any leaks. They even took acting classes to prepare them for their roles. Last Monday the helicopters and their crews moved into position deep in Guaviare province. They were equipped with panic buttons in case anything went wrong. If the operation was successful, the pilots were to radio a single message – “Viva Colombia��?.

On Tuesday Padilla flew to a jungle command and control post and, by dawn on Wednesday, it was clear that the first part of the intelligence operation had succeeded.

Colombian agents who had infiltrated Farc sent messages to the leader of the unit holding Betancourt, telling him to gather three groups of hostages at a clearing in the jungle close to the point where previous Venezuelan missions had landed.

The guerrilla leader, known by the codename Cesar, had been having difficulty communicating with Farc leaders and appeared only too ready to follow instructions that he believed had come directly from Alfonso Cano, the group’s senior commander.

Special forces commandos melted into the jungle around the planned rendezvous. “They were not so close as to be seen, but near enough to stop an escape,��? said Padilla.

There was one last snag. Among the hostages were soldiers, policemen and three burly Americans who had no idea they were about to be rescued. Their captors told them they were being transferred to a different part of the country. Betancourt told Padilla later that she thought the journey might present “an opportunity to escape��?.

The rescue mission could have ended in catastrophe if the hostages had unknowingly fought their would-be rescuers. So for a few minutes the hostages were handcuffed by their saviours. Cesar and his deputy climbed on board. The helicopters lifted off and within moments the two guerrillas had been stripped and disabled. Betancourt was free.

She and her family arrived at a military airfield in Paris on Friday to be greeted by the president. Nicolas Sarkozy had promised on the day of his election victory last year to make Betancourt’s freedom a priority of his presidency. She rewarded him by saying: “I owe you my life.��?

Sarkozy undoubtedly deserves credit for keeping her plight in the public eye. Yet conspicuously absent from Padilla’s account was any mention of French assistance. Indeed, the Colombians appear to have gone to some lengths not to inform Paris in advance, in case it tried to halt the mission. Sarkozy was informed only when the rescue was over.

For Betancourt, who before her kidnapping was a minor political figure, a rich new life beckons. She has survived tarantulas, scorpions and crippling tropical diseases. She almost died from a stomach ulcer and at one point wanted to commit suicide. She talked last week about the indignities of her captivity – trying to prevent her towel slipping as guerrillas watched her bathe and having to go to the lavatory behind bushes at night while a male guerrilla held a lantern.

Yet already she has hinted that she might revive her presidential ambitions. One congressman close to Uribe told me that if the constitution is changed to allow him to run for a third term – as many Colombians appear to wish – HE MIGHT CHOSE BETANCOURT AS HIS VICE-PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE.

Some in Bogota think it was Betancourt’s fault that she got kidnapped – she ignored government warnings about campaigning in a rebel-infested province – but there was national joy over the pictures of her reunion with her son, Lorenzo, 19, and her daughter, Melanie, 22. Relegated to the background was her husband, Juan Carlos Lecompte, who later said simply: “We talked all night.��?

Mostly there was a sense of pride that Colombian forces may have delivered a fatal blow to Farc fortunes and four decades of slaughter may soon be over. “Farc is in a bad situation,��? said Padilla. “This is not the beginning of the end, as Churchill said. I think we’re nearer to the end of the end.��?

timesonline.com - Tony Allen-Mills

By Medellin Traveler on Jul 5, 2008, 17:50 in Politics & the war.

Medellin Traveler says on Jul 5, 2008, 18:07:

Operation Checkmate Deux - "HE MIGHT CHOSE BETANCOURT AS HIS VICE-PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE."

Is this movie worth the price of the ticket?

"Huevos Rancheros en Medellin, No Quiero Taco Bell." - www.medellintraveler.com

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Medellin Traveler says on Jul 5, 2008, 18:13:

Medo, my apologies if I missed the thread regarding Ingrid Betancourt as Vice President to Alvaro Uribe in 2010. This article was just posted on timesonline.com thought it was an interesting subject for discusion.

"Huevos Rancheros en Medellin, No Quiero Taco Bell." - www.medellintraveler.com

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wendell13 says on Jul 5, 2008, 18:33:

Em...what nationality is your name?

I am sure it is just a coincidence but if you spell it backwards it actually spells some English words

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Gator says on Jul 5, 2008, 18:40:

Gee, I thought I said that:

Gator says on Jul 3, 2008, 10:01: flag

If he can and does run again what a ticket this would be: Uribe, President; Betancourt , Vice-president. Then she runs for president.

Talk about a landslide both times."

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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Gator says on Jul 5, 2008, 19:29:

Put a rubber band around your head and snap out of it. Then crawl back into your hole before I rip you head off and vomit in you chest cavity.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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billyb says on Jul 5, 2008, 20:02:

Maybe somebody can tell Time.com that the name of the operation was "check", not "Checkmate".

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Gator says on Jul 5, 2008, 20:46:

Don't ever get personal with my wife you worthless piece of s_ _ t.

When I want your monkey-brained opinion I'll rattle your cage, okay? You wouldn't know Up from Down if you had three guesses. Have you ever noticed that whenever you sit behind a keyboard, some idiot starts typing? Anyway, who was talking to you or even taking you under consideration? Please try to have some small idea of what in the hell you're talking about before you try to post again.If I had wanted to talk to somebody with your personality, I would be at the damn pet store talking to the lizards.
Your posts are a tedious, homogenised, chameleon-esque scribble which amounts to nothing more than the demented cacophonous racket of a drugged lunatic banging loudly on kitchen pots and pans. I suggest you hone your writing skills before applying borrowed glories as a mere typist.
I'll consider letting you have the last word if you guarantee it will be your last.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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goin_south says on Jul 6, 2008, 00:59:

IB won't eva be president or vp of Colombia.

Where do we go from here?

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dwmte7 says on Jul 6, 2008, 03:51:

hmm i missed something there. peace everyone.

dwmte

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Desideria (Moderator) says on Jul 6, 2008, 03:57:

That was some colorful language, Tio Gator. Do you have copywright to it?
(No doubt Medo deserved every last word of it)

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

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aztec says on Jul 6, 2008, 05:33:

If gator reacted this strongly, in my opinion the poster was out of line. First time I have ever seen Gator react so vigorously.

On another matter did any one pickup on this statement from the article? Seems they did not trust the French president.

"Sarkozy undoubtedly deserves credit for keeping her plight in the public eye. Yet conspicuously absent from Padilla’s account was any mention of French assistance. Indeed, the Colombians appear to have gone to some lengths not to inform Paris in advance, in case it tried to halt the mission. Sarkozy was informed only when the rescue was over."

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Gator says on Jul 6, 2008, 06:56:

Sorry about the strong reaction, but I will NOT have my wife drawn into this type of discussion with those type of statements-especially by an alleged "newbie."

Thanks to the much maligned mods for removing same so promptly.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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george jung says on Jul 6, 2008, 07:23:

Gator, he stepped over the line last night. I usually take things with a grain of salt, but as they did with UTC and now you, speaking ill of someones family is over the line and you was 100% correct on his a$$ hard for that. I usually laugh at these little pee ants until they disrespect the family, more power to you and you have nothing to apologize for Mr. Gator

"Men and fish are alot alike, when they open their mouths, they both get in trouble"

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Gator says on Jul 6, 2008, 09:27:

Mil gracias amigo. El que ríe último mejor. Va de mal en peor.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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george jung says on Jul 6, 2008, 09:48:

One other thing Mr. Gator, I have been a member for along time as you the same year, this is my alter ego name. I have always read your opinions and you are a stand up gentleman with alot of class and you do not side with no rah rah clics here, one of the very few here. I hope you do not shy away from your great opinions and responses, as UTC had to change to protect himself when he was verbally attacked.

"Men and fish are alot alike, when they open their mouths, they both get in trouble"

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Gator says on Jul 6, 2008, 12:28:

George, just tripple my above post-again thanks.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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dwmte7 says on Jul 6, 2008, 20:35:

well, i guess i just missed the fray.

dwmte

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